The conference welcomes submissions of original, high quality papers concerning autonomous agents in a variety of embodiments and playing a variety of roles in their environments. The Agents 2001 conference, like its predecessors, will focus primarily on systems that have been or are being implemented; theory papers are welcome provided that they clearly relate to such systems, for example by helping us to predict their behavior, explain, or understand them. The submission of pure, abstract theory papers is not encouraged: there are other, more appropriate forums for such work. Papers that address isolated agent capabilities (such as planning or learning) are similarly discouraged, unless they are placed in the overall context of autonomous agents. Evaluation of agents or multi-agent systems will be considered a desireable component of each submission.

In addition to conventional conference papers, we strongly encourage the submission of papers that focus on implemented systems or software prototypes. These papers require a demonstration of the software prototype at the conference and should include a detailed project/system description specifying hw/sw features and requirements. A clear description of the application domain(s) and other implementational/system oriented attributes should be included in the paper. Accepted software prototype papers will be presented within a special track at the conference along with the implemented system. The papers will also be reviewed specifically for the special track.

Exciting robot demos will also be presented as part of the Agents 2001 Robot Program, providing an exceptional opportunity to demonstrate state-of-the-art research, to share ideas and technology from the very broad research perspectives addressed by the Agents scientific community, and to increase awareness of the key challenges in designing autonomous robotic agents. We encourage teams from universities and other research laboratories to participate. Information about the Robot Program and associated travel assistance is found on the Autonomous Agents web page.

Furthermore the conference will include internationally known invited speakers and an exhibits session. More generally, the conference will strive towards an informal atmosphere with plenty of time for presentations, questions, and discussions. Accepted papers and posters will be formally published in a Conference Proceedings. A limited number of student scholarships will be available.