Decision-Making in the Context of Commitments to Team Activity

本项目旨在为更完整的协作理论提供科学依据，并开发构建具有协作能力的软件代理的机制。这是哈佛大学和马里兰大学的一个机构间合作研究项目。研究的重点是构建能够在多智能体环境下管理其计划和意图的智能体，以及在团队活动环境下做出决策的智能体。拟议的研究包括三个活动：对群体活动承诺的不同政策及其对个人和群体行为和结果的影响进行实证调查；发展一种形式理论，可用于解决抽象的意图调和问题，并确定稳定的战略和有效的政策；以及构建更复杂的具有协作能力的软件代理。先前的四方面研究支持了这一努力：协作的正式模型的规范，协作能力系统原型的构建，协商模型的规范，以及在群体活动背景下对决策进行实证调查的模拟框架的发展。该项目有助于协作的基础研究，开发具有协作能力的软件代理和协作人机界面系统，以及培养本科生和研究生。

This project aims to provide the scientific basis for more complete theories of collaboration and to develop mechanisms for constructing collaboration-capable software agents. It is an inter-institutional collaborative research project of Harvard University and the University of Maryland. The research focuses on problems of constructing agents able to manage their plans and intentions in multi-agent contexts and to make decisions in the context of team activities.The proposed research comprises three activities: empirical investigations of different policies governing commitment to group activities and their influence on individual and group behavior and outcomes; development of a formal theory that may be used to address abstractly questions of intention reconciliation and to identify stable strategies and effective policies for it; and construction of more sophisticated collaboration-capable software agents. Four strands of previous research support this effort: specification of a formal model of collaboration, construction of prototype collaboration-capable systems, specification of models of negotiation, and development of a simulation framework for empirically investigating decision-making in the context of group activities.The project contributes to fundamental research in collaboration, to the development of collaboration-capable software agents and collaborative human-computer interface systems, and to the training of undergraduate and graduate students.