In the context of joint mission planning, we are interested in how human teams put our two main agent types (i.e. planner agent and critique agent) to work in order to plan a route and make equipment choices that satisfy both individual and team constraints. While the Path Planner Agent takes account of physical constraints when planning a route automatically, it can not account on its own for social or dynamic constraints (e.g. areas such as hospitals and schools that commanders may wish to avoid). The Critique Agent allows team members to participate actively in the construction of all or part of a route, but it cannot suggest a shorter or more cost efficient route. The Critique Agent can only say whether or not the user's suggested route will work, given what it knows about the terrain's physical and social constraints. Thus, we are interested in how team members negotiate the costs and benefits of different agent types.
Applied to mission critical teams, agent technology has the potential to:
- Reduce total decision making time;
- Allow team members to consider a broader range of alternative plans;
- Provide a context for rapid re-planning and flexible contingency managment;
- Increase team cohesion and overall team performance.
In sum, our research is interested in how teams, when faced with time pressures and dynamic environments, can work together successfully.
