Embracing AWKWARD! Real-time Adjustment of Reactive Plans Using Social Norms

TL;DR

This paper introduces the AWKWARD architecture enabling real-time reconfiguration of agent plans in multi-agent systems to adapt to social norms and roles, demonstrated through a game-based example.

Contribution

It combines Behaviour Oriented Design with the OperA framework to allow hybrid agents to dynamically adjust behaviors based on social context and environmental changes.

Findings

Real-time plan adjustment achieved in simulated environment

Enhanced transparency of social interactions in agent behaviors

Demonstration using DOTA2 game environment

Abstract

This paper presents the AWKWARD architecture for the development of hybrid agents in Multi-Agent Systems. AWKWARD agents can have their plans re-configured in real time to align with social role requirements under changing environmental and social circumstances. The proposed hybrid architecture makes use of Behaviour Oriented Design (BOD) to develop agents with reactive planning and of the well-established OperA framework to provide organisational, social, and interaction definitions in order to validate and adjust agents' behaviours. Together, OperA and BOD can achieve real-time adjustment of agent plans for evolving social roles, while providing the additional benefit of transparency into the interactions that drive this behavioural change in individual agents. We present this architecture to motivate the bridging between traditional symbolic- and behaviour-based AI communities, where such combined solutions can help MAS researchers in their pursuit of building stronger, more robust intelligent agent teams. We use DOTA2, a game where success is heavily dependent on social interactions, as a medium to demonstrate a sample implementation of our proposed hybrid architecture.