We have two recently accepted publications on our work investigating team coordination through a mixed-reality game probe. AtomicOrchid has become somewhat of a key research platform in ORCHID to trial Agent-based technologies in a real-world setting, involving people in the role of field responders and HQ coordinators.
Here is a short video about AtomicOrchid:
The two papers document different stages in the development and trialling process of AtomicOrchid. The paper Wenchao Jiang (‘my’ PhD student) will be presenting at COOP (International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems) in Nice is on the trial of the initial version of AtomicOrchid. We use the trial to develop implications for interactive systems to support such settings in which field responders are supported by coordinators in the HQ. In this version, there is no additional agent-based technology that supports the responders yet.
The paper Wenchao will be presenting at CTS (International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems) in Minneapolis presents the trial of AtomicOrchid with agent-based planning support (the version talked about in the video). Through this field trial of the agent-enhanced version of AtomicOrchid we develop the ‘social implications’ the instructions have on the team coordination in the setting.
References and PDFs
Fischer, J.E., Jiang, W., Kerne, A., Greenhalgh, C., Ramchurn, S.D., Reece, S., Pantidi, N. and Rodden, T. (2014). Supporting Team Coordination on the Ground: Requirements from a Mixed Reality Game. To appear in: Proc. 11th Int. Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (COOP ’14). Springer.
Abstract. We generate requirements for time-critical distributed team support relevant for domains such as disaster response. We present the Radiation Response Game to investigate socio-technical issues regarding team coordination. Field responders in this mixed-reality game use smartphones to coordinate, via text messaging, GPS, and maps, with headquarters and each other. We conduct interaction analysis to examine field observations and log data, revealing how teams achieve local and remote coordination and maintain situational awareness. We uncover requirements that highlight the role of local coordination, decision-making re- sources, geospatial referencing and message handling.
Jiang, W., Fischer, J.E., Greenhalgh, C., Ramchurn, S.D., Wu, F., Jennings, N.R. and Rodden, T. (2014). Social Implications of Agent-based Planning Support for Human Teams. To appear in: Proc. of the 2014 Int. Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS ’14). IEEE.
Abstract. We present a field trial of how instructions from an intelligent planning agent are dealt with by distributed human teams, in a time-critical task setting created through a mixed-reality game. We conduct interaction analysis to examine video recorded field observations and game log data. The findings highlight the social process by which players interpret and negotiate the agent guidance as well as how these are intertwined with social dynamics of the teams. The insights can be used to develop an understanding of interactional issues around automated team instructions and inform the design of human-centred planning support systems.