Abstract: In this paper, we describe a set of software tools called the PRIDE ONTOlogy Editor (PRONTOE) and a methodology that allows system operators and domain experts to build and maintain ontologies of their sys-tems with no explicit understanding of the underlying ontology representation. We present two case studies: one using NASA flight controllers, and another using the DARPA Robotic Challenge. 1

An important aspect of interaction among groups of humans and software agents is supporting collaboration among these heterogeneous agents while they operate remotely and communicate asynchronously. We are developing an architecture that supports multiple humans interacting with multiple automated control agents in such a manner. We are evaluating this architecture with a group consisting of the crew of a space-based vehicle and the automated software agents controlling the vehicle systems. Such agent interaction is modelled as a loosely co-ordinated group because this model minimizes agent commitment to group goals and constraints while addressing a significant portion of crew and control agent group behaviours. In this paper, we give background on human interaction with space-based automation. We identify related research in multi-agent autonomous architectures and single agent human-computer interaction systems, we describe our architecture design for human-software agent groups and we identify research issues in loosely co-ordinated human-software groups.

This paper describes an implementation of the 3T robot architecture which has been under development for the last eight years. The architecture uses three levels of abstraction and description languages which are compatible between levels. The makeup of the architecture helps to coordinate planful activities with real-time behaviours for dealing with dynamic environments. In recent years, other architectures have been created with similar attributes but two features distinguish the 3T architecture: (1) a variety of useful software tools have been created to help implement this architecture on multiple real robots; and (2) this architecture, or parts of it, have been implemented on a variety of very different robot systems using different processors, operating systems, effectors and sensor suites.