Improving agent team performance through helper agents

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the problem of environmental constraints on teams and examine how the constraints impact teamwork. We simulate a realistic problem for teams in the physical world by implementing a limit on the range of communication among agents. Using BlocksWorld for Teams from Delft University of Technology, we build teams of 3-4 agents with varying communication ranges and of different agent type (regular task-performer, communication-only or reconnaissance-only) to test team performance in the constrained environment. We analyze the results and discuss implications to the team mental model. We show that adding a helper agent to the team can reduce task completion time, but not for all types of agents and environments. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.