From STEAM to Machinetta: The evolution of a BDI teamwork model

For applications involving heterogeneous agents working together to achieve complex goals, teamwork [,,] has emerged as the dominant coordination paradigm. For domains as diverse as rescue response, military, space, sports and collaboration between human workmates, flexible, dynamic coordination between cooperative agents needs to be achieved despite complex, uncertain, hostile environments. There is now emerging consensus in the multiagent arena that for flexible teamwork among agents, each team member is provided with an explicit model of teamwork, which entails their commitments and responsibilities as a team member. This explicit modeling allows the coordination to be robust, despite individual failures and unpredictably changing environments.