A spatio-temporal model towards ad-hoc collaborative decision-making

Abstract

For an autonomous agent, performing a task in a spatio-temporal environment often requires interaction with other agents. Such interaction can be initiated by ad-hoc collaborative planning and decision-making, which then leads to physical support on site. On-site collaboration is important for a variety of operations, such as search-and-rescue or pick-up-and-delivery. Tasks are performed through sequences of actions, and agents perceive possibilities for these actions in terms of affordances from the environment. Agent collaboration therefore requires the communication of affordances between agents with different capabilities. This paper introduces a spatio-temporal model for the decentralized decision-making of autonomous agents regarding on-site collaboration. Based on Janelle's time-geographic perspective on communication modes, we demonstrate that different task situations lead to different spatio-temporal constraints on communication, involving both physical presence and telepresence. The application of such constraints leads to an optimized message distribution strategy and therefore efficient affordance communication with regard to maximizing support in performing a given task. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.