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

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Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 12421))

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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.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the program of Concerted Research Actions (ARC) of the Université libre de Bruxelles. M.K. Heinrich, A. Cleeremans and M. Dorigo acknowledge support from the F.R.S.-FNRS, of which they are, respectively, postdoctoral researcher and research directors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Nicolas Coucke, Mary Katherine Heinrich & Marco Dorigo

  2. CO3, Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Nicolas Coucke & Axel Cleeremans

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  1. Nicolas Coucke
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  2. Mary Katherine Heinrich
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  3. Axel Cleeremans
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  4. Marco Dorigo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolas Coucke .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Marco Dorigo

  2. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Thomas Stützle

  3. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Maria J. Blesa

  4. Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Bellaterra, Spain

    Christian Blum

  5. University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

    Heiko Hamann

  6. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Mary Katherine Heinrich

  7. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Volker Strobel

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Coucke, N., Heinrich, M.K., Cleeremans, A., Dorigo, M. (2020). HuGoS: A Multi-user Virtual Environment for Studying Human–Human Swarm Intelligence. In: Dorigo, M., et al. Swarm Intelligence. ANTS 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12421. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60376-2_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60376-2_13

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