@conference {1510360,
	title = {MDPs for Adjustable autonomy in a real-world multi-agent environment},
	booktitle = {AAAI Spring Symposium on Decision theoretic and Game Theoretic Agents},
	year = {2001},
	abstract = {Research on adjustable autonomy (AA) is critical if we are to
deploy multiagent systems in support of important human activities. Through AA, an agent can dynamically vary its level
of autonomy {\textemdash} harnessing human abilities when needed, but
also limiting such interaction. While most previous AA work
has focused on individual agent-human interactions, this paper focuses on agent teams embedded in human organizations
in the context of real-world applications. The need for agent
teamwork and coordination in such environments introduces
novel AA challenges. In particular, transferring control to
human users becomes more difficult, as a lack of human response can cause agent team miscoordination, yet not transferring control causes agents to take enormous risks. Furthermore, despite appropriate individual agent decisions, the
agent teams may reach decisions that are completely unacceptable to the human team.
We address these challenges by pursuing a two-part decisiontheoretic approach. First, to avoid team miscoordination due
to transfer of control decisions, an agent: (i) considers the
cost of potential miscoordination with teammates; (ii) does
not rigidly commit to a transfer of control decision; (iii)
if forced into a risky autonomous action to avoid miscoordination, considers changes in the team{\textquoteright}s coordination that
mitigate the risk. Second, to ensure effective team decisions, not only individual agents, but also subteams and teams
can dynamically adjust their own autonomy. We implement
these ideas using Markov Decision Processes, providing a
decision-theoretic basis for reasoning about costs and uncertainty of individual and team actions. This approach is central
to our deployed multi-agent system, called Electric Elves, that
assists our research group in rescheduling meetings, choosing
presenters, tracking people{\textquoteright}s locations and ordering meals.},
	author = {D. V. Pynadath and Paul Scerri and Tambe, Milind}
}
