Using Simulation to investigate a Non-Anthropomorphic Framework for Communications within a Human-Agent War-Fighting Team

Abstract

As complex, non-human agents become increasingly ubiquitous members of the US military war-fighting team, an effective and natural system of communications must be explored and developed to achieve human-agent collaboration across the entire team. A nonanthropomorphic communications framework does not exist that will support human-agent collaboration beyond current electronic control.This research surfaces a nonanthropomorphic framework of communications between human-human, human-agent, and agent-agent teams based on related literature review. The framework provides perspective on the potential breath of communication modalities that exist as well as the many challenges faced. Within this framework, this research uses simulation to explore the contribution to collaborative, covert military operations that non-verbal forms of communications between humans and agent team members might entail. Visual and audio cues considered include pose, motion, color, and non-speech sounds. In addition this article presents findings on contribution of these modalities to the military operation being considered as well as identifies issues for implementation, applications, implications, and areas for future research.

Framework and Assessment of Conversational Virtual Humans as Role-players in Simulated Social Encounters with People

“…As "software entities [that] look and act like people and can engage in conversation and collaborative tasks," [9], virtual humans have advantages over people as social skills role-players in that virtual humans provide consistent performances unaffected by fatigue, illness, or personal issues [10]. Examples of virtual humans as roleplayers in training environments include law enforcement personnel [11,12], medical patients [13,14], and military personnel [10,15,16]. The capability to simulate face-to-face conversations between a virtual human and a person holds great promise for social skills training and development [17,18].…”

Special Issue: Modeling and Simulation for Training Applications in Counter-insurgency/Irregular Warfare (COIN)

“…military operations that non-verbal forms of communications between humans and agent team members might entail" and present "findings on contribution of these modalities" to those operations. 4 From a training application perspective, Michael D. Proctor and Michael D. Woodman in the 2007 article "Training 'Shoot House' Tactics Using a Game", describe research that "Explores the possibility of expanding the paradigm of using games with traditional interfaces" and present findings on the capabilities and limitations of those interfaces for the serious task of training counter-insurgency tactics in house-clearing operations. 5 Also from a training application perspective, Michael D. Proctor, Thomas Lucario, and Carlos Wiley in the 2008 article "Are Officers More Reticent of Games for Serious Training than Enlisted Soldiers?"…”