In this paper, we propose a novel approach to the design of intelligent autonomous agents, based on an original model of mental activity. In particular, we introduce the concept of active mental entity, as a new way of representing mental attitudes such as intentions and persuasions. The internal architecture of an agent is thus understood as a distributed system whose reasoning activity is determined by the interactions among active mental entities. A detailed description of the structure and operation of an agent is provided. The implementation of the proposed paradigm is then illustrated and some performance examples are presented.
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