A study of human-agent collaboration for multi-UAV task allocation in dynamic environments

We consider a setting where a team of humans oversee the coordination of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to perform a number of search tasks in dynamic environments that may cause the UAVs to drop out. Hence, we develop a set of multi-UAV supervisory control interfaces and a multi-agent coordination algorithm to support human decision making in this setting. To elucidate the resulting interactional issues, we compare manual and mixed-initiative task allocation in both static and dynamic environments in lab studies with 40 participants and observe that our mixed initiative system results in lower workloads and better performance in re-planning tasks than one which only involves manual task allocation. Our analysis points to new insights into the way humans appropriate flexible autonomy

Human Evaluation and Correlation with Automatic Metrics in Consultation Note Generation

The authors would like to thank Rachel Young and Tom Knoll for supporting the team and hiring the evaluators, Vitalii Zhelezniak for his advice on revising the paper, and Kristian Boda for helping to set up the Stanza+Snomed fact-extraction system.Publisher PD

Human Evaluation and Correlation with Automatic Metrics in Consultation Note Generation

In recent years, machine learning models have rapidly become better at generating clinical consultation notes; yet, there is little work on how to properly evaluate the generated consultation notes to understand the impact they may have on both the clinician using them and the patient's clinical safety. To address this we present an extensive human evaluation study of consultation notes where 5 clinicians (i) listen to 57 mock consultations, (ii) write their own notes, (iii) post-edit a number of automatically generated notes, and (iv) extract all the errors, both quantitative and qualitative. We then carry out a correlation study with 18 automatic quality metrics and the human judgements. We find that a simple, character-based Levenshtein distance metric performs on par if not better than common model-based metrics like BertScore. All our findings and annotations are open-sourced.Comment: To be published in proceedings of ACL 202

HAC-ER: a disaster response system based on human-agent collectives

This paper proposes a novel disaster management system called HAC-ER that addresses some of the challenges faced by emergency responders by enabling humans and agents, using state-of-the-art algorithms, to collaboratively plan and carry out tasks in teams referred to as human-agent collectives. In particular, HAC-ER utilises crowdsourcing combined with machine learning to extract situational awareness information from large streams of reports posted by members of the public and trusted organisations. We then show how this information can inform human-agent teams in coordinating multi-UAV deployments as well as task planning for responders on the ground. Finally, HAC-ER incorporates a tool for tracking and analysing the provenance of information shared across the entire system. In summary, this paper describes a prototype system, validated by real-world emergency responders, that combines several state-of-the-art techniques for integrating humans and agents, and illustrates, for the first time, how such an approach can enable more effective disaster response operations

HAC-ER: disaster response system based on human-agent collectives

This paper proposes a novel disaster management system called HAC-ER that addresses some of the challenges faced by emergency responders by enabling humans and agents, using state-of-the-art algorithms, to collaboratively plan and carry out tasks in teams referred to as human-agent collectives. In particular, HACER utilises crowdsourcing combined with machine learning to extract situational awareness information from large streams of reports posted by members of the public and trusted organisations. We then show how this information can inform human-agent teams in coordinating multi-UAV deployments as well as task planning for responders on the ground. Finally, HAC-ER incorporates a tool for tracking and analysing the provenance of information shared across the entire system. In summary, this paper describes a prototype system, validated by real-world emergency responders, that combines several state-of-the-art techniques for integrating humans and agents, and illustrates, for the first time, how such an approach can enable more effective disaster response operations

Verkko-opetus - mahdollisuus kädentaidon opetuksen kehittämiseen kansalaisopistossa

Joensuun seudun kansalaisopiston tavoitteena on kehittää kädentaidon opetusta niin, että se säilyy elinvoimaisena ja kilpailukykyisenä. Työssä selvitettiin, voiko Internetin välityksellä tapahtuva opetus olla yksi kansalaisopiston mahdollisuus kehittää ja ylläpitää kädentaidon opetusta. Selvitys on osa opiston kädentaidon opetuksen uudistusta, jolla tavoitellaan nuorempien ikäluokkien osallistumista opiston toimintaan. Kokonaisuuteen kuului kädentaidon kuvapankin sekä blogin perustaminen. Verkko-opetuksen mahdollisuuksia kansalaisopiston yhtenä opetusmuotona kokeiltiin videoitua villasukan kantapääkavennusta ja siihen liitettyä kyselyä. Molemmat ladattiin Youtube ja opiston Facebook –sivuille sekä kädentaidon blogiin laitettiin linkit kyseisille sivuille. Kysely lähetettiin harkitulla otannalla sähköposteihin sekä kaikille Pohjois-Karjalan ammattikorkeakoulun opiskelijoille. Kyselyllä haluttiin selvittää, mistä vastaajat etsivät kädentaidon tietoa ja ovatko he opiskelleet ja haluaisivatko he opiskella internetin välityksellä. Lisäksi haluttiin tietää videoiden toimivuutta verkko-opetuksen mahdollisena välineenä. Analyysissä verrattiin, onko eri asuinalueilla vaikutusta tiedon etsintään sekä haluun opiskella internetin välityksellä. Kyselyyn vastaajat halusivat käsitöitä tekemällä oppia uusia tekniikoita, vaikka taitoja jo olisi ollutkin. Videoiden kautta opiskelu koettiin myönteisenä ja toiveita opetettaviksi aiheiksi esitettiin. Myönteinen ajattelu on haaste opistolle, henkilökunnalle ja asiakkaille, jotta kädentaidon verkko-opetus voi toteutua.The Community College of the Joensuu Area aims to develop education in manual skills so that the education remains vibrant and competitive. This study explores the possibility of using e-learning as one way for the institution to develop and maintain its education in handcrafts. The thesis is a part of the community college’s reform of teaching handcrafts, aiming to involve younger age groups in the institution’s activities. The practical part of the thesis consists of creating a handcraft image database and a blog. The opportunities to use web-based teaching as a part of a course were explored by videotaping a heel turning in knitted socks and sending a questionnaire to possible viewers. Both were downloaded to YouTube and the institution’s Facebook pages, and links to both pages were added to the handcraft blog. The questionnaires were sent to chosen recipients and all students at North Karelia University of Applied Sciences. The aim of sending the questionnaire was to find out a) where the respondents seek for information on making handcrafts, b) have they studied via the Internet and c) would they like to study via the Internet. In addition, the aim was to explore the efficacy of videotaped teaching as a possible tool of distance education. The respondents were interested in learning new techniques by doing handcrafts, even if they had particular skills already. They responded positively to learning through watching videos, and they also made suggestions to future themes to be taught. Positive thinking is a challenge for the community college, its personnel and the customers so that web-based teaching in handcrafts may become reality