View - ResearchGate

Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots 9In chapter 12 David Pynadath and Milind Tambe report their experiencein using a system of electronic assistants, in particular focusing on teams ofagents operating in a real-world human organization. Their experience leadthem to abandon a decision tree approach and instead adopt a more adaptivemodel that reasons about the uncertainty, costs, and constraints of decisions.They call this approach adjustable autonomy because the agents take into accountthe potential bad consequences of their action when deciding to takeindependent action, much as an employee might check critical decisions withher boss. The resulting system now assists their research group in reschedulingmeetings, choosing presenters, tracking people’s locations, and orderingmeals.Edmund Chattoe is a sociologist who uses agent-based computational simulationas a tool. In chapter 13 he argues that rather than basing the design ofour agent systems upon a priori design principles (e.g. from philosophy) weshould put considerable effort into collecting information on human society.He argues that one factor hindering realization of the potential of MAS (multiagentsystems) for social understanding is the neglect of systematic data useand appropriate data collection techniques. He illustrates this with the exampleof innovation diffusion and concludes by pointing out the advantages ofMAS as a tool for understanding social processes.The following 20 chapters can be thematically grouped into five sectionswhich describe how Socially Intelligent Agents are being implemented andused in a wide range of practical applications. This part shows how SociallyIntelligent Agents can contribute to areas where social interactions with humansare a necessary (if not essential) element in the commercial success andacceptance of an agent system. The chapters describe SIA systems that areused for a variety of different purposes, namely as therapeutic systems (section2.4), as physical instantiations of social agents, namely social robots (section2.5), as systems applied in education and training (section 2.6), as artifactsused in games and entertainment (section 2.7), and for applications used ine-commerce (section 2.8).2.4 Interactive Therapeutic Agent SystemsInteractive computer systems are increasingly used in therapeutic contexts.Many therapy methods are very time- and labor-extensive. Computer softwarecan provide tools that allow children and adults likewise to learn at theirown pace, in this way taking some load off therapists and parents, in particularwith regard to repetitive teaching sessions. Computer technology is generallyvery ‘patient’ and can easily repeat the same tasks and situations overand over again, while interaction and learning histories can be monitored and