The Impact of HAT on Team Dynamics and Coordination: A Teaming-Oriented Study for MUM-T
Neubauer Stefan, Axel Schulte · 2025
This paper investigates team structures and dynamics in team-based collaborative environments, which can be adapted to design Human-Agent Teams (HAT). Coordination between team members is critical to mission success, especially in dynamic, time-critical environments. As highly automated agents become more prevalent, effective HAT become crucial to maintain effective coordination. This especially applies to our domain of Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) in which manned and unmanned aircraft act as collaborative teammates, with pilots acting as integrated combat members and decision-makers. We see a clear need for design patterns that support the development of agents that meet the requirements of effective HAT. The development of these patterns focuses on MUM-T and is carried out in two steps. Firstly, we conduct a review study to identify the general behavioural patterns, coordination mechanisms, and enablers of effective teaming. Secondly, these findings are then compared with organizational paradigms from Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). The requirements for effective HAT are then used to propose a hybrid two-layer cognitive work system that can be used for MUM-T missions. The first layer of this design pattern represents the tactical planning team, where the pilot and an agent collaborate on mission planning. The second layer represents tactical execution, where agents and UAVs jointly execute this plan. To realize this two-layer approach, the architecture combines a hierarchical planning layer with a holarchical execution layer. Lastly, we discuss how this work system can be realized in a coordinated intercept MUM-T mission. The architecture is intended to support the development of cognitive agents that show high teaming capabilities in MUM-T missions and cooperatively support pilots.