The Knowbot^® software released here implements a research infrastructure for mobile agents ("Knowbot programs") intended for use in widely distributed systems such as the Internet. The current version is an experimental prototype; we plan to release new, improved versions on a regular basis.

CNRI invites researchers and other interested parties to test drive the Knowbot software. We would like your feedback on the software, and also welcome proposals for joint projects using the software. We plan to run the Knowbot software on one or more of our public hosts and hope that others will do the same, thereby creating a widely distributed network of connected public Knowbot "service stations" (our words for servers running the Knowbot software).

The Knowbot software is written in Python, an interpreted object-oriented programming language. The software executes Knowbot programs also written in Python. However, the design of the Knowbot architecture allows multiple programming languages; support for Knowbot programs written in Java (in addition to Python) is planned for a future release. Knowbot programs written in Python and Java should then be able to interoperate.

CNRI is involved in a number of research experiments with this technology, for example, using Knowbot software to augment web servers in various ways, to support protocol negotiation between geographically distributed systems, and to mediate access to information in a network environment.

The following (local) links provide more information:

View the Knowbot software license: read this before downloading the software
Download the Knowbot software
Browse online documentation
Experiments: what can you do with Knowbot software?
System requirements: hardware and software needed
Brief overview: a quick look at the components of the Knowbot software
Papers: earlier papers with some background on the Knowbot project
Bugs: known bugs and how to report new ones
Future plans: how we expect to improve the software in the future
Mailing lists: announcements, discussions
Feedback mail: talk back to us

Important notice: for a while (until September 23, 1998, 11:40 EST), the distribution was accidentally missing the unofficial ILU patch (to the ILU stubber) referred to in the installation instructions. Rather than downloading the distribution again, you can download just that patch here: ilu-unofficial-patch.txt

These web pages have received the BotSpot of the week award:

Knowbot^® is a Registered Trademark of CNRI