Comparing action-query strategies in semi-autonomous agents

Abstract

We consider semi-autonomous agents that have uncertain knowledge about their environment, but can ask what action the operator would prefer taking in the current or in a potential future state. Asking queries can help improve behavior, but if queries come at a cost (e.g., due to limited operator attention), the number of queries needs to be minimized. We develop a new algorithm for selecting action queries by adapting the recently proposed Expected Myopic Gain (EMG) from its prior use in settings with reward or transition probability queries to our setting of action queries, and empirically compare it to the current state of the art. Copyright © 2011, International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (www.ifaamas.org). All rights reserved.