REAL-WORLD SOFTWARE MAKE-OR-BUY DECISION

REAL-WORLD SOFTWARE MAKE-OR-BUY DECISION



REAL-WORLD SOFTWARE MAKE-OR-BUY DECISION

Vice President Moore''s proposal to purchase the manufacturing software from EMS

Human teams aided by a software system can make decisions more accurately and quickly in time-stressed situations than teams of just people, according to the Penn State researchers who developed the new software.

The researchers tested their software in a military command-and-control simulation which involved intelligence gathering, logistics and force protection. When time pressures were normal, the human teams functioned well, sharing information and making correct decisions about the potential threat, according to the researchers. But when the time pressure increased, the teams' performance suffered, according to the researchers. Because there was no time to share information, the teams made incorrect decisions about whether to avoid or attack the coming aircraft.

"This is the first test of the R-CAST architecture, and it shows that software agents can play an essential role in helping human partners make the right decision at the right time," said Xiaocong Fan, a post-doctoral scholar in Penn State's School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and lead author.

The results of the experiment are described in a paper, "Extending the Recognition-Primed Decision Model to Support Human-Agent Collaboration," presented July 29 by John Yen at the Fourth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems in Amsterdam. Co-authors are Shuang Sun, a doctoral student in information sciences and technology; Michael McNeese, associate professor of information sciences and technology; and Yen, the University professor of information sciences and technology.

Arguments in favor of developing the required systems internally

In the simulation, team members had to protect an airbase and supply route which were under attack by enemy aircraft. The scenarios were configured with different patterns of attack and at different tempos. The situation was complicated because team members had to determine at first ...