Team Dynamic

Team Dynamic

Literature Review:
  Modeling Teamwork as Part of Human-Behavior Representation

  Thomas R. Ioerger
  Department of Computer Science
  Texas A&M University
  ioerger@cs.tamu.edu

  Funding provided by: Army Research Lab, Aberdeen, MD.

Introduction

Teamwork is an important but often over-looked component of human behavior representation (HBR).   Many of the activities in modern military combat operations involve teamwork.   Teams exist both within well-defined units, as well as cutting across echelons.   For example, a command staff at battalion and brigade levels consists of multiple officers working together to help the commander make decisions, and interactions and coordination between officers in the same staff section (e.g. G2/S2-Intelligence) at different levels can also be characterized as teamwork.   At the lowest level, an infantry platoon, reconaissance squad, or even tank crew works as a team to achieve a variety of tactical objectives.   At the highest level, combined-arms operations and joint operations rely on integrating various assets and capabilities for maximum effectiveness.   Teamwork is also needed to avoid unfortunate outcomes such as friendly fire accidents.   Multiple documented instances of fratricide have been attributed to break-downs in sharing of information and coordination of authority across different units working independently, even though all the information necessary to avoid the tragedy was available (Snook, 2002).   In this paper, we provide an overview of current research on teamwork, with a focus on aspects relevant to human behavior representation in simulations (especially in the domain of military combat).   We also discuss the use of intelligent agents for modeling teamwork in these simulations, and we identify challenges for future research.

What are Teams?   What is Teamwork?

Teams are more than just a collection of individuals pursuing their own goals.   A commonly accepted definition of teamwork is a...