Team Design Patterns

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of team design patterns and proposes an intuitive graphical language for describing the design choices that influence how intelligent systems (e.g. artificial intelligence, robotics, etc.) collaborate with humans. We build on the notion of design patterns and characterize important dimensions within human-agent teamwork. These dimensions are represented using a simple, intuitive graphical iconic language. The simplicity of the language allows easier expression, sharing and comparison of human-agent teaming concepts. Having such a language has the potential to improve the collaborative interaction among a variety of stakeholders such as end users, project managers, policy makers and programmers that may not be human-agent teamwork experts themselves. We also introduce an ontology and specification formalization that will allow translation of the simple iconic language into more precise definitions. By expressing the essential elements of teaming patterns in precisely defined abstract team design patterns, we provide a foundation that will enable working towards a library of reusable, proven solutions for human-agent teamwork.