Design principles and action reflection for agent-based assistive technology

Abstract

This paper is aimed at formalizing the interplay among a person to be assisted, an assistive agent-based software, and a caregiver. We propose general principles for designing the interplay between a person to be assisted and an agent based on formal argumentation theory to characterize the agent’s reasoning processes. These principles emerge from a novel perspective to understand assistive technology using the concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD) from social sciences. ZPD can be understood as a measurement of activity development, comparing what a person can perform with or without external help. We characterize a rational agent in four ZPD zones: (I) independent activity execution, agent takes no action; (II) ZPDH: a person supported by another person, agent takes no action; (III) ZPDS: a person is supported by an agent; and (IV) ZPDH+S: a person is supported by a caregiver and a software agent at the same time. An algorithm was developed for the agent to reason about the actions to be selected in different situations, based on formal argumentation theory for allowing non-monotonic reasoning. The formal models and algorithm were implemented in a prototype system using augmented reality as interface. Future work includes evaluating the principles and algorithm in actual use situations.