Although the lab is fairly new, it continues a tradition of research in artificial intelligence that began at the University in 1962. Efforts at that time were concentrated on pattern recognition.
Current studies focus on the software related aspects of agent design.
Using models from behavior-based robotics and cognitive science, students in the lab are writing programs that will help give this and other robots in the lab intelligence. Understanding agent applications in e-commerce, the entertainment industry, and automated knowledge processing requires a thorough analysis of the types of agents, the architectures they require, and their capabilities.