Editing Software agent (section)

===Monitoring-and-surveillance (predictive) agents===
[[Monitoring and Surveillance Agents|Monitoring and surveillance agents]] are used to observe and report on equipment, usually computer systems. The agents may keep track of company inventory levels, observe competitors' prices and relay them back to the company, watch [[stock manipulation]] by [[insider trading]] and rumors, etc.
[[File:Resource monitoring 2.jpg|thumb|Service monitoring]]

For example, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has an agent that monitors inventory, planning, schedules equipment orders to keep costs down, and manages food storage facilities. These agents usually monitor complex computer networks that can keep track of the configuration of each computer connected to the network.

A special case of monitoring-and-surveillance agents are organizations of agents used to [[Automated decision-making|automate decision-making]] process during tactical operations. The agents monitor the status of assets (ammunition, weapons available, platforms for transport, etc.) and receive goals from higher level agents. The agents then pursue the goals with the assets at hand, minimizing expenditure of the assets while maximizing goal attainment.