Using Agents in Virtual Environments to Assist Controllers to Manage Multiple Assets

Abstract

Abstract. Search and rescue operations often require complex coordination of a range of resources, including human and robotic resources. This paper discusses a proposed new framework that allows agent technology to be used in conjunction with a virtual environment to provide a human controller with an effective visualisation of the distribution of a collection of autonomous objects, in our case, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) so that they can be managed in a way that allows them to successfully complete the task in the minimum possible time. It is our contention that to do this effectively there needs to be two-way initiation of verbal conversations, but that it is not necessary for the system to completely understand the conversations required. An example scenario is presented that illustrates how such a system would be used in practice, illustrating how a single human can verbally communicate with a swarm of semi-autonomous actors verbally and envisage their activities in a swarm based on the visual cues provided within the virtual environment. An agent-based solution is proposed that meets the requirements and provides an effective command station that can manage a search using a collection of UAVs effectively.

Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability

“…However, care will be required in the use of the sensor data from such rescue operations to avoid security and privacy violations. At the current state of the art, such search and rescue support robots require human supervision (Beer et al 2012 ). However, in the future such robots could become more autonomous and possibly start to replace people, giving rise to the possibility of job losses and deskilling, as well as putting trapped individuals at risk in the case of robot breakdown.…”

A persuasive agent architecture for behavior change intervention

“…Agent designs such as studies [12]- [16] presented agent system architectures based on the beliefs, desires and intentions (BDI). The BDI architecture is an agent within a dynamic environment and the input received predefined the actions that will be taken in line with its set objective in the environment.…”