150 likes | 276 Views
A Large-Scale Multi-Agent System for Navy Personnel Distribution. Lee McCauley and Stan Franklin Resource Consultants, Inc. and The University of Memphis. The Task. Increase sailor satisfaction with the detailing process Give commands some input Reduce the number of human detailers needed
E N D
A Large-Scale Multi-Agent System for Navy Personnel Distribution Lee McCauley and Stan Franklin Resource Consultants, Inc. and The University of Memphis
The Task • Increase sailor satisfaction with the detailing process • Give commands some input • Reduce the number of human detailers needed • Increase manning percentages at sea • Increase retention
Overview of IDA • Communicates in natural language via email • Rates jobs with respect to the Navy’s policies/needs and the sailor’s desires • Determines time restrictions via temporal deliberation • Converses with the sailor about job selection over the course of several emails
What Can IDA Do? • Negotiate with sailors AK3 Wayne Alan Lewis, These are the 2 jobs that seem perfect for you: Take 09067 billet at FIGHTER SQUADRON - VF 101 stationed at VIRGINIA BEACH. Take up month 9907. Take 57012 billet at COMMANDER NAVAL AIR FORCE, US ATLANTIC FLEET stationed at NORFOLK. Take up month 9906. Please, make your choice. V/R IDA AK3 Wayne Alan Lewis, These are the 1 jobs that best suit you. I'm sure you would like them. Take 49146 billet at NAVAL AIR STATION NIF stationed at POINT MUGU. Take up month 9905. Please, make your choice. V/R IDA AK3 Wayne Lewis, I did not offer that job. Please check the list again. V/R IDA. AK3 Wayne Alan Lewis, I've got you posted to go to POINT MUGU. Should receive your orders soon. V/R IDA. From: Wayne Alan Lewis<wlewis@navy.us> Subject: SSN 241410214 IDA, Thanks for the jobs you found for me. But I would not like to take either of them. Can you please try to find something else? Thanks, AK3 Wayne Lewis From: Wayne Allen Lewis <wlewis@navy.us> Subject: SSN: 241410214 IDA, I prefer to take 12345 billet. Thanks, AK3 Lewis From: Wayne Allen Lewis <allen@navy.us> Subject: SSN: 241410214 IDA, I prefer to take billet 49146. Thanks, AK3 Lewis Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2001 16:53:23 +0000 From: Wayne Alan Lewis <wlewis@navy.us> Subject: SSN: 241410214 IDA, I am AK3 Wayne Alan Lewis . I would really like for you to find me a job in Norfolk. Thanks, AK3 Lewis
The Future of IDA • IDA is becoming MANRD (Multi-Agent Naval Resource Distributor) • MANRD will consist of a “Sailor Agent” for every sailor and a “Command Agent” for every command • Agents will converse with their humans through email and a web interface • The agents will meet in a simulated marketplace
Why Individual Agents? Advocacy!!
Challenge #1 – Managing Agents • > 300,000 sailors • ~ 45,000 commands • Each with their own agent
Response #1 – Managing Agents • Not as bad as it seems • Only about 5000 agents will need to be active at a time • Remove or replace “expensive” IDA modules • “Consciousness” • Behavior Nets • Sparse Distributed Memory • Share modules between agents
Challenge #2 – Make the sailor happy • Happy sailors work better and are more likely to “Stay Navy” • Sailors have the perception that they are not getting all of their job options
Response #2 – Make the sailor happy • The system should show the sailor ALL the jobs • Denote those jobs for which the sailor is applicable • Be able to tell the sailor why they are NOT applicable for certain jobs if the sailor asks • Have separate lists of suggested jobs • Those that the Navy would like as determined by the Navy agent • Those that the sailor would like as determined by his or her agent • Add incentives where appropriate
Challenge #3 – Involve the commands • Commands currently have no say in who they get
Response #3 – Involve the commands • Commands have their own agent • They can provide a preference for job applicants • Let commands give more specific information about the needs of a given job • Allocate some incentives to the commands for use in hiring
Challenge #4 – Maintain Navy readiness • A completely open market will not increase sea manning (within the Navy budget) • Probably wouldn’t increase moral as some sailors (or commands) would feel that they lost out • Straight optimization suffers from similar problems along with a lack of advocacy
Response #4 – Maintain Navy readiness • Navy determines the environment • Navy determines minimum acceptable match fitness (e.g. through optimization technique) • Navy sets hard constraints (policies that must be adhered to) • Navy allocates some incentives where needed
Points to Leave With • Artificial agents should be used to focus the efforts of the human agents – not replace them • Ultimately, it’s not about how well the artificial agents or the computer system can perform; it’s about the perception of the sailors.