A formalization of the coach problem

Abstract

Coordination is an important aspect of multi-agent teamwork. In the context of robot soccer in the RoboCup Standard Platform League, our focus is on the coach as an external observer of the team, aiming to provide his teammates with effective tactical advice during matches. The coach problem can be approached from different angles: in order to adapt the behaviour of his teammates, he should at first be able to perform plan recognition on their observable actions. Furthermore, in providing them with appropriate advice, he should still adhere to the norms and regulations of the match to prevent penalties for his team. Also, when teammates' profiles and attributes are unknown or the system is only partially observable, coordination should be more 'ad hoc' to ensure robustness of the Multi-Agent System (MAS). In this work, we present a formalization of the problem of designing a coach in robot soccer, employing a temporal deontic logical framework. The framework is based on agent organizations[10], in which social coordination and norms play an important part.