An Adjustable Autonomy Management Module for Multi-agent Systems

Abstract The design and development of software agents that perform adjustable autonomous actions in dynamic environments is a challenging research issue. Adjustable autonomous agents operate according to a spectrum of autonomy states. The autonomy states are dynamically adjusted to improve the agents’ performance and avoid autonomy surprises. For instance, the agents need to be guided or improvise when they encounter unplanned events. In this paper, we propose an Adjustable Autonomy Management (AAM) module for multi-agent systems. We integrate the AAM module within a BDI agent’s architecture to form an adjustable autonomous agent. The AAM module enables the agent to internally adjust its autonomy and handles external autonomy adjustments. We apply the agents in an autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system. We test the UAV in a dynamic environment via experimenting aerial surveillance missions. The test results show that the agent-based UAV system successfully operates in the dynamic environment and performs the aerial surveillance missions. Subsequently, the AAM module is able to manage agents’ autonomy, reduce human workload and reduce adjustable autonomy disturbance.