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The synthetic teammate project

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Abstract

The main objective of the Synthetic Teammate project is to develop language and task enabled synthetic agents capable of being integrated into team training simulations. To achieve this goal, the agents must be able to closely match human behavior. The initial application for the synthetic teammate research is creation of an agent able to perform the functions of a pilot for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) simulation as part of a three-person team. The agent, or synthetic teammate, is being developed in the ACT-R cognitive architecture. The major components include: language comprehension and generation, dialog management, agent-environment interaction, and situation assessment. Initial empirical results suggest that the agent-environment interaction is a good approximation to human behavior in the UAV environment, and we are planning further empirical tests of the synthetic teammate operating with human teammates. This paper covers the project’s modeling approach, challenges faced, progress made toward an integrated synthetic teammate, and lessons learned during development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Air Force Research Laboratory, Mesa, AZ, USA

    Jerry Ball

  2. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH, USA

    Christopher Myers

  3. General Motors, Mesa, AZ, USA

    Andrea Heiberg

  4. Cognitive Engineering Research Institute, Mesa, AZ, USA

    Nancy J. Cooke

  5. Alion, Boulder, CO, USA

    Michael Matessa

  6. L3 Communications, Mesa, AZ, USA

    Mary Freiman

  7. AGS TechNet, Dayton, OH, USA

    Stuart Rodgers

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  1. Jerry Ball
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  2. Christopher Myers
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  4. Nancy J. Cooke
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  5. Michael Matessa
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  6. Mary Freiman
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  7. Stuart Rodgers
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Correspondence to Jerry Ball.

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Ball, J., Myers, C., Heiberg, A. et al. The synthetic teammate project. Comput Math Organ Theory 16, 271–299 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-010-9065-3

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