An ambient agent system assisting humans in complex tasks by analysis of a human's state and performance

Abstract

Abstract. Human task performance varies depending on the task, environment, and states of the human over time. To ensure high effectiveness and efficiency in the execution of complex tasks, adaptive automated assistance of the human may be required. In this paper, a generic design for a multi-agent system architecture is presented and a personal assistant agent is presented that makes use of the proposed architecture. The agent constantly monitors the task execution and well-being of the human via non-intrusive sensors, and intervenes when a problem is detected. A human is given a complex task, while the future performance is predicted using observations and a dynamical model for the human's work pressure and exhaustion. If the predicted exhaustion becomes too high, the ambient agent can assist the human in a number of ways. Experiments show that the support system increases performance with around 13%, and that it enhances the feeling of control of the situation.

Self-modeling Networks Using Adaptive Internal Mental Models for Cognitive Analysis and Support Processes

“…Within such complex and adaptive cognitive processes usually internal mental models are used. For example, in [3][4][5][6] internal mental models were used for the analysis process and for the support process (see also Fig. 1):…”

“…2 can be and actually has been used to model within one self-modeling network the adaptive mental models for analysis and support sketched in Sect. 3.…”

Performance Measures to Enable Agent-Based Support in Demanding Circumstances

“…For future research, the idea is to incorporate the most promising performance measurements in a personal assistant agent, and see how well this support agent is able to support the human. Note that a preliminary study concerning this has already been performed (see [14]), however in that setting not all promising measurements have been utilized by the personal assistant agent yet.…”

“…The scenario can in the future easily be extended with a personal assistant agent that measures progress, and takes care of some missiles in cases the human is becoming overloaded. A preliminary study addressing a personal assistant agent for this task environment can be seen in [14], note that the proposed performance measurements in this paper have not been incorporated in the personal assistant agent yet.…”