Agents with Adjustable Autonomy

This symposium was motivated by the recognition that even as autonomous system technologies mature into practical applications, humans still refuse to disappear. Humans stay in the loop, so practical applications require that the autonomous software be understandable and adjustable. Adjustable autonomy means dynamically adjusting the level of autonomy of an agent depending on the situation. For real-world teaming between humans and autonomous agents, the desired or optimal level of control can vary over time. Hence, effective autonomous agents will support adjustable autonomy, which contrasts with most work in autonomous systems, where the style of interaction between the human and the agent are fixed by design. The adjustable autonomy concept includes the ability for humans to adjust the autonomy of agents, for agents to adjust their own autonomy, and for a group of agents to adjust the autonomy relationships within the group.