Abstract
This paper describes the results of a joint Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), Agent Oriented Software Pty. Ltd. (AOS Australia) technology development project, known as TeBAT. Team Based Agent Technology (TeBAT) is a programming framework supporting specification of coordinated activity among software agents.
TeBAT is based upon the BDI (Belief, Desire, Intention) paradigm, which evolved from early work by Bratman on rational agency. Key to this approach is an emphasis on intentionality, with teams of agents possessing collaborative intentions. In TeBAT, team movement is characterized as structured flocking behaviors with formation control. Conceptually, each team entity is aware of its place in the formation, and it is aware of any entities around it as well as the terrain and environment in which it operates. TeBAT further enables dynamic formation and re-formation of teams, reasoning over team goal failures at the team level, as well as automatic sharing and aggregation of beliefs betweens teams and sub-teams.
Applied to land combat simulation, TeBAT allows team-based tactical operations of military doctrine to be captured and played out in simulation scenarios with minimal effort, in contrast to the previous laborious construction of complex, scenario-specific scripts involving multiple interdependencies between entities.
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Vaughan, J., Connell, R., Lucas, A., Rönnquist, R. (2003). Towards Complex Team Behavior in Multi-agent Systems Using a Commercial Agent Platform. In: Truszkowski, W., Hinchey, M., Rouff, C. (eds) Innovative Concepts for Agent-Based Systems. WRAC 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2564. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45173-0_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45173-0_14
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