Agents as Catalysts for Mobile Computing

Agent-Oriented Programming (AOP) offers an alternative and radical approach to the development of information systems in various domains. However, one domain that AOP has only minimally affected, at least up until now, is that of mobile computing. Until recently, the use of strong intentional agents in such a domain has been considered impractical, and, indeed, computationally intractable. In this paper, Agent Factory, a system for the fabrication of strong intelligent agents, is reviewed in light of agent deployment on mobile devices. As an illustration of the potential of agents in mobile applications, two archetypical mobile computing applications, realised through Agent Factory, are described.