Trust and Communication in Human Agent Robot Teamssites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/...Geert Wilders started a website to complain about Polish immigrants . Universiteit

Universiteit Utrecht

Trust and Communication in

Human Agent Robot Teams

Frank Dignum


[email protected]


Agenda

• Trust

• Expectations in HART

• Communication in Teams

• Contexts of team communication

• Trusting that what is said is understood

• Trusting what is said

• Conclusions on communication for teamwork


TRUST

1. trust is believing that the person who is trusted will do what is expected (wikipedia)

2. trust is that which is essential to a communication channel but cannot be transferred from a source to a destination using that channel (information science)

3. trust can be betrayed, whilst reliance can only be disappointed

4. Trust is the amount of assumptions I am willing to make to derive an expected situation from a verified set of facts (Frank Dignum)


Trust

Verifiable facts

Verifiable facts

Expected situation

Expected situation

TRUST

trust

My daughter

My daughter’s boyfriend


TRUST

1. If I have a good model of a person (agent, robot) I need less assumptions to predict their actions

2. If I monitor (verify facts) all the time I do not need a good model of a person (agent, robot) to predict the outcome of their actions

1. If the environment restricts actions and is deterministic I don’t need trust to determine realistic expectations.

2. If I can observe all actions I can adjust my expectations quick (and don’t need trust)


Issues with trust and teamwork

1.Efficiency

2.Knowledge

1. Monitoring and communication

2. General and specific models of the situation


Assumptions for teamwork situations

1. We cannot monitor all actions and events in the environment

2. The environment is dynamic and at least partly unpredictable (our models are imperfect)

1. We need communication and trust to build realistic expectations about reaching (goal) states.

2. We need to create as good models as possible for all team members


Good Communication is crucial for good

teamwork

1. Communicate enough 2. Don’t talk too much


Communication and trust in teamwork

Need for communication in order to have sufficient trust to efficiently perform teamwork

a) Indicate non-verifiable facts (e.g. mental attitudes)

b) Efficiently indicate changes in environment

But also:

Need for trust that:

1. Important facts are communicated

2. Messages are understood by others

3. I interpret messages correct


Teamwork and communication

Teamwork entails: Web of beliefs, mutual beliefs, and

intentions (Bratman)


Teamwork and communication

Teamwork entails: Agreements that entail obligations for

participants to adopt certain intentions (Gilbert)

JGoal(X,p) → (Oxy(Goal(x,px)) px →p

( Achieve(x,px) → Oxy(Inform(x,y, p)))

….


Teamwork

Essential in teamwork are

1. A common goal

2. Mutual expectations

3. Mutual predictability

Most of the intricate definitions follow from these issues.


Communication in teamwork

Communication is needed to create and to maintain mutual expectations and predictability, which entails intricate webs of beliefs, commitments, intentions, obligations, etc.

Maintain:

1. whenever a sub goal is achieved or is believed no longer achievable the relevant members of the team should be informed.

2. Whenever something happens that might influence the goal of the team or the sub goal of any of its

members the relevant members should be informed

3. Whenever any team member violates any of its obligations appropriate action should be taken and relevant members should be informed

4. …


Control the complexity

1. Mutual beliefs require TWO way communication:

CLOSE THE LOOP

2. Use of context to

minimize communication


Ways to reduce communication overload

1. Use predictable environment

• Good for testing

• Not realistic for HART

2. Use fixed plans and protocols

• Used in practice

• Does not work in dynamic environments (crisis)

3. Use context to complement communication

• Done by humans all the time (thus required in

HART!)


Contexts?

1. What are contexts?

2. How to model (represent) contexts?

3. How to use contexts?

4. Contexts can overlap. How to determine which context to use?


Contexts

A. Zimmermann, A. Lorenz, and R. Oppermann. An Operational Definition of Context, B. B. Kokinov et al. (Eds.): CONTEXT 2007, LNAI 4635, pp. 558–571, 2007.


Use context to add information to your message Physical context

All is OK

“Go there”

Directs a player to a position on the field


Physical context (individuality)

But also:

I understand I understand

VS.


Institutional context

“We’re out and safe”

We achieved our goal to get the victim out. You can let relevant team members know that we are done. Let us know if there is anything else we can do now.


Social and temporal context

“I’m OK”

I am feeling tired, but (seeing that I am the best shooter) I am still good enough to take the responsibility for the last shot.


Cultural context

“what’s next?”

You are the expert. I have not enough information about how to achieve my part of the plan. Please, inform me what to do next.


Using contexts to understand messages

1. Which context to use to extend the meaning and/or disambiguate the message

2. How do the contexts determine the pragmatics of the message?

3. Is the part of the context I use common ground?


Using contexts to interpret communication

Hello my friend. How are you?

Greetings are always friendly. The word “friend” is commonly used in EU meetings to show you know someone well.

EU meeting

He is not my friend and he mocks me

History/relational

Geert Wilders started a website to complain about Polish immigrants


Disambiguating messages

Culture: does the format correspond with the expected content/pragmatics of the message?

Social/institutional: how are terms interpreted in this context?

Relational: names and terms refer to specific objects and events from the common ground


Cultural context


In a low power distance culture the “boss” can ask genuine advice from others

OK


In a high power distance culture the “boss” does never ask genuine advice from others


Interpreting the pragmatics of terms

I will get to it immediately

I will get to it immediately


Teamwork and institutions

Institutions are the context for much of the teamwork

Many of the necessary common or joint beliefs about the team are provided by this “context”

Roles provide division of labor and expectations


Determine context

1. If content of the communication is related to specific actions, goals, knowledge,… of a (presumed) common context then use that as context of the message (often an institutional context)

• It’s time now to finish the presentation

2. If content needs more disambiguation use a more general context and/or historical/relational context

• “finish the presentation” means “not more than 5 minutes left”

3. Use a general or cultural context to compare format and content of the message to determine salient points

• “interesting point” in some cultural context means “what a

bloody idiotic idea”


Conclusions

1. Trust in the achievement of the team is supported by “proper” communication

2. Communication is enhanced through

1. closing the loop

2. Use of the social and physical context (to increase common knowledge)

3. Communicating at different levels

3. Leaders have to know who needs which information at what time and make sure they have just that information (either direct or indirect)

4. Team roles are important because they decrease complexity of communication. They set default expectations that should be trusted

5. Multi-modal communication training is essential for the real world to minimize misunderstandings

6. How do we determine that speaker and hearer use the same context and have the same beliefs about this context?


Future work

How do we build agents that people can trust for team work?

Do they need to have mutual beliefs, goals, commitments, etc.?

How do they reason about the contexts and expectations of the communication?

Do they have to have multi-modal communication?

Or can we just simulate it?

Documents

Trust and Communication in Human Agent Robot Teamssites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/...Geert Wilders started a website to complain about Polish immigrants . Universiteit