Applying the agent-based modeling approach to evaluate future communication strategies in dispersed operations in a complex environment

Future conflicts will increasingly take place in complex, urban environments. This calls for a change from operating in large formations and from static encampments to dispersed, networked, decentralized and small-scale operations. Concept development for dispersed operations and their accompanying strategies has only just begun. To aid in this...

Trust Development in Military and Civilian Human–Agent Teams: The Effect of Social-Cognitive Recovery Strategies

Autonomous agents (AA) will increasingly be deployed as teammates instead of tools. In many operational situations, flawless performance from AA cannot be guaranteed. This may lead to a breach in the human’s trust, which can compromise collaboration. This highlights the importance of thinking about how to deal with error and trust violations...

Trust Repair in Human-Agent Teams: the Effectiveness of Explanations and Expressing Regret

Trust is a fundamental aspect of teamwork in Human-Agent Teams (HATs). Trust violations are an inevitable aspect of the cycle of trust, so effective trust repair strategies are needed to ensure durable and successful team performance. This study explores the effectiveness of four trust repair strategies. In a first-person shooter resembling HAT...

Talking Trucks: Decentralized Collaborative Multi-Agent Order Scheduling for Self-Organizing Logistics

Logistics planning is a complex optimization problem involving multiple decision makers. Automated scheduling systems offer support to human planners; however state-of-the-art approaches often employ a centralized control paradigm. While these approaches have shown great value, their application is hindered in dynamic settings with no central...

A Modular Architecture for Integrating Normative Advisors in MAS

This paper introduces a modular architecture for integrating norms in autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. As the interactions between norms and agents can be complex, this architecture utilizes multiple programmable components to model concepts such as adoption of personal and/or collective norms (possibly conflicting), interpretation and...

A Compression and Simulation-Based Approach to Fraud Discovery

With the uptake of digital services in public and private sectors, the formalization of laws is attracting increasing attention. Yet, non-compliant fraudulent behaviours (money laundering, tax evasion, etc.) - practical realizations of violations of law - remain very difficult to formalize, as one does not know the exact formal rules that define...

Mixed-initiative approaches in the design of a trusted shift of coordination forms: Supporting collaboration to handle imperfect partners

In this paper, we discuss principles for designing collaboration among human and future non-human intelligent collaborators (NICs), focusing on interdependence and emergent dynamics of work flow. We discuss a dynamic coordination concept, where multiple military teams collaborate in support of Joint targeting, (JT) partly (and in some of the...

Adaptive Agents for Fit-for-Purpose Training

Simulators and games provide contextually rich environments, enabling learners to experience the relations between actions, events and outcomes. In order to be effective, learning situations need to be tailored to the needs of the individual learner. Virtual characters (or agents) that, in real time, select, adapt, and exhibit the behavior that...

Bayesian-DPOP for continuous distributed constraint optimization problems

In this work, the novel algorithm Bayesian Dynamic Programming Optimization Procedure (B-DPOP) is presented to solve multi-agent problems within the Distributed Constraint Optimization Problem framework. The Bayesian optimization framework is used to prove convergence to the global optimum of the B-DPOP algorithm for Lipschitz-continuous...

Conceptual Agent Based Model Simulation for the Port Nautical Services

Deep sea international ports are competitive businesses serving the transshipment needs of shipping lines linking seaborne freight with hinterland connections. The level of service is one of the important decision factors for the shipping lines' decision on whether to call at a port. Therefore, port performance is a vital competitive component...

Development and evaluation of multi-agent models predicting Twitter trends in multiple domains

This paper concerns multi-agent models predicting Twitter trends. We use a step-wise approach to develop a novel agent-based model with the following properties: (1) it uses individual behavior parameters for a set of Twitter users and (2) it uses a retweet graph to model the underlying social network structure of these Twitter users to predict...

Energy efficiency comparison of a centralized and a multi-agent market based heating system in a field test

For the built environment it is envisaged that in the near future the total annual heat demand could be covered by renewable sources generated within the built environment. More and more devices, such as heat pumps and solar collectors will enable a sustainable and distributed generation of heat. Centralized climate management systems are...

Constrained capacity management and cost minimisation of EV-charging in a parking garage

Apart from the optimal real-time electricity price to buy the electricity, the optimal, time dependent, capacity contracted with the DSO is of crucial importance for concerted charging of electric vehicles in a parking garage. The battery management system, on its turn, imposes constraints on the sequence of steps in which power is transmitted....

A Thermal grid coordinated by a Multi Agent Energy Management System

In the near future an increase of both thermal grids and sustainable suppliers of heat with intermittency behavior, connected to these heat grids, is expected. For smart operation this challenges the current centralized management systems. To deal with this and to optimize cost and energy efficiency a multi-agent approach is proposed, which to a...

High Concentration of Heat Pumps in Suburban Areas and Reduction of Their Impact on the Electricity Network

One of the challenges of the near future for a more renewable Dutch electricity infrastructure is the embedding of high concentrations of heat pumps in currently built domestic residences. In the Dutch situation demand of electricity occurs simultaneously with demand of heat, high electricity peak loads in the low voltage network are expected....

Do you get it? User-evaluated explainable BDI agents

In this paper we focus on explaining to humans the behavior of autonomous agents, i.e., explainable agents. Explainable agents are useful for many reasons including scenario-based training (e.g. disaster training), tutor and pedagogical systems, agent development and debugging, gaming, and interactive storytelling. As the aim is to generate for...

Organizations and Autonomous Agents: Bottom-Up Dynamics of Coordination Mechanisms

Agents in an organization need to coordinate their actions in order to reach the organizational goals. Organizational models specify the desired behaviour in terms of roles, relations, norms and interactions. In this research, we show how organizational rules can be adopted by autonomous agents. We have developed a method to translate norms into...

A Dynamic Coordination Mechanism Using Adjustable Autonomy

Agents in an organization need to coordinate their actions in order to reach the organizational goals. This research describes the relation between types of coordination and the autonomy of actors. In an experimental setting we show that there is not one best way to coordinate in all situations. The dynamics and complexity of, for example,...