A LargeScale MultiAgent System for Navy Personnel Distribution

1
A Large-Scale Multi-Agent System for Navy
Personnel Distribution

• Lee McCauley and Stan Franklin
• Resource Consultants, Inc. and The University of
  Memphis

2
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

3
Overview of IDA

• Communicates in natural language via email
• Rates jobs with respect to the Navys
  policies/needs and the sailors desires
• Determines time restrictions via temporal
  deliberation
• Converses with the sailor about job selection
  over the course of several emails

4
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 Lewisltwlewis_at_navy.usgt 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 ltwlewis_at_navy.usgt
Subject SSN 241410214   IDA,   I prefer to
take 12345 billet.   Thanks, AK3 Lewis
From Wayne Allen Lewis ltallen_at_navy.usgt Subject
SSN 241410214   IDA, I prefer to take billet
49146.   Thanks, AK3 Lewis
Date Tue, 09 Jun 2001 165323 0000 From
Wayne Alan Lewis ltwlewis_at_navy.usgt 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
5
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

6
Why Individual Agents?

• Advocacy!!

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Challenge 1 Managing Agents

• gt 300,000 sailors
• 45,000 commands
• Each with their own agent

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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

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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

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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

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Challenge 3 Involve the commands

• Commands currently have no say in who they get

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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

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Challenge 4 Maintain Navy readiness

• A completely open market will not increase sea
  manning (within the Navy budget)
• Probably wouldnt 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

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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

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Points to Leave With

• Artificial agents should be used to focus the
  efforts of the human agents not replace them
• Ultimately, its not about how well the
  artificial agents or the computer system can
  perform its about the perception of the
  sailors.