Intelligent Agents and Environments #

An intelligent agent connects perception with action. It observes an environment through sensors, uses the information it receives to decide what to do, and affects the environment through actuators.

Develop the core vocabulary for reasoning about intelligent agents: percepts, actions, rationality, performance measures, PEAS and the different properties an environment can have.

Learning Objectives #

explain the relationship between an agent and its environment
distinguish sensors, percepts, actions and actuators
explain percept sequences and the agent function
describe what makes an agent rational
distinguish rationality from omniscience
specify a task environment using PEAS
classify environments using standard AI properties
explain why environment properties affect agent design

Big Picture #

flowchart TD
    E[Environment] -->|Percepts| S[Sensors]
    S --> A[Agent]
    A --> C[Actuators]
    C -->|Actions| E

    style E fill:#E1F5FE
    style S fill:#FFF9C4
    style A fill:#C8E6C9
    style C fill:#EDE7F6

Think of an agent as a continuous loop: observe → decide → act → observe again. An action may change the environment, so the next observation may be different.