Agents United: An Open Platform for Multi-Agent Conversational Systems

Tessa Beinema; Daniel Davison; Dennis Reidsma; Oresti Banos; Merijn Bruijnes; Brice Donval; Álvaro Fides Valero; Dirk Heylen; Dennis Hofs; Gerwin Huizing; Reshamashree B. Kantharaju; Randy Klaassen; Jan Kolkmeier; Kostas Konsolakis; Alison Pease; Catherine Pelachaud; Donatella Simonetti; Mark Snaith; Vicente Traver; Jorien Van Loon; Jacky Visser; Marcel Weusthof; Fajrian Yunus; Hermie Hermens; Harm op den Akker

doi:10.1145/3472306.3478352

Agents United: An Open Platform for Multi-Agent Conversational Systems

Tessa Beinema, Daniel Davison, Dennis Reidsma, Oresti Banos, Merijn Bruijnes, Brice Donval, Álvaro Fides Valero, Dirk Heylen, Dennis Hofs, Gerwin Huizing, Reshamashree B. Kantharaju, Randy Klaassen, Jan Kolkmeier, Kostas Konsolakis, Alison Pease, Catherine Pelachaud, Donatella Simonetti, Mark Snaith, Vicente Traver, Jorien Van LoonJacky Visser, Marcel Weusthof, Fajrian Yunus, Hermie Hermens, Harm op den Akker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

202 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The development of applications with intelligent virtual agents (IVA) often comes with integration of multiple complex components. In this article we present the Agents United Platform: an open source platform that researchers and developers can use as a starting point to setup their own multi-IVA applications. The new platform provides developers with a set of integrated components in a sense-remember-think-act architecture. Integrated components are a sensor framework, memory component, Topic Selection Engine, interaction manager (Flipper), two dialogue execution engines, and two behaviour realisers (ASAP and GRETA) of which the agents can seamlessly interact with each other. This article discusses the platform and its individual components. It also highlights some of the novelties that arise from the integration of components and elaborates on directions for future work.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	IVA '21
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents
Place of Publication	New York, NY
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	17-24
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-8619-7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478352
Publication status	Published - 14 Sept 2021
Event	21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021 - Virtual, Online, Japan Duration: 14 Sept 2021 → 17 Sept 2021 Conference number: 21

Conference

Conference	21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021
Abbreviated title	IVA 2021
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Virtual, Online
Period	14/09/21 → 17/09/21

Keywords

Coaching
Multi-agent system
Open source platform
Social conversational agents

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10.1145/3472306.3478352Licence: CC BY-NC

ArticleFinal published version, 2.12 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

Beinema, T., Davison, D., Reidsma, D., Banos, O., Bruijnes, M., Donval, B., Fides Valero, Á., Heylen, D., Hofs, D., Huizing, G., Kantharaju, R. B., Klaassen, R., Kolkmeier, J., Konsolakis, K., Pease, A., Pelachaud, C., Simonetti, D., Snaith, M., Traver, V., ... op den Akker, H. (2021). Agents United: An Open Platform for Multi-Agent Conversational Systems. In IVA '21: Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (pp. 17-24). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478352

@inproceedings{38ed3f54ad404c7788a7434088ccc99e,

title = "Agents United: An Open Platform for Multi-Agent Conversational Systems",

abstract = "The development of applications with intelligent virtual agents (IVA) often comes with integration of multiple complex components. In this article we present the Agents United Platform: an open source platform that researchers and developers can use as a starting point to setup their own multi-IVA applications. The new platform provides developers with a set of integrated components in a sense-remember-think-act architecture. Integrated components are a sensor framework, memory component, Topic Selection Engine, interaction manager (Flipper), two dialogue execution engines, and two behaviour realisers (ASAP and GRETA) of which the agents can seamlessly interact with each other. This article discusses the platform and its individual components. It also highlights some of the novelties that arise from the integration of components and elaborates on directions for future work.",

keywords = "Coaching, Multi-agent system, Open source platform, Social conversational agents",

author = "Tessa Beinema and Daniel Davison and Dennis Reidsma and Oresti Banos and Merijn Bruijnes and Brice Donval and {Fides Valero}, {\'A}lvaro and Dirk Heylen and Dennis Hofs and Gerwin Huizing and Kantharaju, {Reshamashree B.} and Randy Klaassen and Jan Kolkmeier and Kostas Konsolakis and Alison Pease and Catherine Pelachaud and Donatella Simonetti and Mark Snaith and Vicente Traver and {Van Loon}, Jorien and Jacky Visser and Marcel Weusthof and Fajrian Yunus and Hermie Hermens and {op den Akker}, Harm",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 769553 (Council of Coaches). Funding Information: The Agents United Alliance is supported by the Personalised eHealth Technology programme of the University of Twente. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Owner/Author.; 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021, IVA 2021 ; Conference date: 14-09-2021 Through 17-09-2021",

year = "2021",

month = sep,

day = "14",

doi = "10.1145/3472306.3478352",

language = "English",

pages = "17--24",

booktitle = "IVA '21",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "United States",

}

Beinema, T, Davison, D , Reidsma, D, Banos, O, Bruijnes, M, Donval, B, Fides Valero, Á, Heylen, D, Hofs, D, Huizing, G, Kantharaju, RB, Klaassen, R, Kolkmeier, J, Konsolakis, K, Pease, A, Pelachaud, C, Simonetti, D, Snaith, M, Traver, V, Van Loon, J, Visser, J, Weusthof, M, Yunus, F, Hermens, H & op den Akker, H 2021, Agents United: An Open Platform for Multi-Agent Conversational Systems. in IVA '21: Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, pp. 17-24, 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021, Virtual, Online, Japan, 14/09/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3472306.3478352

Agents United: An Open Platform for Multi-Agent Conversational Systems. / Beinema, Tessa; Davison, Daniel ; Reidsma, Dennis et al.
IVA '21: Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery, 2021. p. 17-24.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Agents United

T2 - 21st ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2021

AU - Beinema, Tessa

AU - Davison, Daniel

AU - Reidsma, Dennis

AU - Banos, Oresti

AU - Bruijnes, Merijn

AU - Donval, Brice

AU - Fides Valero, Álvaro

AU - Heylen, Dirk

AU - Hofs, Dennis

AU - Huizing, Gerwin

AU - Kantharaju, Reshamashree B.

AU - Klaassen, Randy

AU - Kolkmeier, Jan

AU - Konsolakis, Kostas

AU - Pease, Alison

AU - Pelachaud, Catherine

AU - Simonetti, Donatella

AU - Snaith, Mark

AU - Traver, Vicente

AU - Van Loon, Jorien

AU - Visser, Jacky

AU - Weusthof, Marcel

AU - Yunus, Fajrian

AU - Hermens, Hermie

AU - op den Akker, Harm

N1 - Conference code: 21

PY - 2021/9/14

Y1 - 2021/9/14

N2 - The development of applications with intelligent virtual agents (IVA) often comes with integration of multiple complex components. In this article we present the Agents United Platform: an open source platform that researchers and developers can use as a starting point to setup their own multi-IVA applications. The new platform provides developers with a set of integrated components in a sense-remember-think-act architecture. Integrated components are a sensor framework, memory component, Topic Selection Engine, interaction manager (Flipper), two dialogue execution engines, and two behaviour realisers (ASAP and GRETA) of which the agents can seamlessly interact with each other. This article discusses the platform and its individual components. It also highlights some of the novelties that arise from the integration of components and elaborates on directions for future work.

AB - The development of applications with intelligent virtual agents (IVA) often comes with integration of multiple complex components. In this article we present the Agents United Platform: an open source platform that researchers and developers can use as a starting point to setup their own multi-IVA applications. The new platform provides developers with a set of integrated components in a sense-remember-think-act architecture. Integrated components are a sensor framework, memory component, Topic Selection Engine, interaction manager (Flipper), two dialogue execution engines, and two behaviour realisers (ASAP and GRETA) of which the agents can seamlessly interact with each other. This article discusses the platform and its individual components. It also highlights some of the novelties that arise from the integration of components and elaborates on directions for future work.

KW - Coaching

KW - Multi-agent system

KW - Open source platform

KW - Social conversational agents

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U2 - 10.1145/3472306.3478352

DO - 10.1145/3472306.3478352

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85114662525

SP - 17

EP - 24

BT - IVA '21

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

CY - New York, NY

Y2 - 14 September 2021 through 17 September 2021

ER -

Agents United: An Open Platform for Multi-Agent Conversational Systems

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Keywords

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