Designing Agents for a Virtual Marketplace

Current leading portals still do not provide the user with a realistic three-dimensional multi-modal interaction. The next generation of portals will not only amend this but will provide an integrated environment with marketplaces, chat rooms and believable synthetic characters. We are concerned with the design of embodied agents for such new virtual marketplaces. This brings challenges such as personalisation, believable interaction, conversational skills and coordination between agents. We have developed a multi-agent architecture for a virtual sales assistant. A BDI model of mental state and a fuzzy rule system are used for reasoning and planning human-like dialogs. Fuzzy variables model user preferences and product descriptions. Protocols describe the conventions of behaviour, ensuring that agents have social awareness. This synergy between existing technologies has the potential to fulfil the requirements for the next generation of portals.