HuGoS: A Multi-user Virtual Environment for Studying Human–Human Swarm Intelligence

Abstract

The research topic of human–human swam intelligence includes many mechanisms that need to be studied in controlled experiment conditions with multiple human subjects. Virtual environments are a useful tool to isolate specific human interactions for study, but current platforms support only a small scope of possible research areas. In this paper, we present HuGoS—‘Humans Go Swarming’—a multi-user virtual environment in Unity, as a comprehensive tool for experimentation in human–human swarm intelligence. We identify possible experiment classes for studying human collective behavior, and equip our virtual environment with sufficient features to support each of these experiment classes. We then demonstrate the functionality of the virtual environment in simple examples for three of the experiment classes: human collective decision making, human social learning strategies, and agent-level human interaction with artificial swarms, including robot swarms.