William J. Clancey

Brahms: simulating practice for work systems design

Abstract A continuing problem in business today is the design of human–computer systems that respect how work actually gets done. The overarching context of work consists ofactivities, which people conceive as ways of organizing their daily life and especially their interactions with each other. Activities include reading mail, going to workshops, meeting with colleagues over lunch, answering phone calls, and so on. Brahms is a multiagent simulation tool for modeling the activities of groups in different locations and the physical environment consisting of objects and documents, including especially computer systems. A Brahms model of work practice revealscircumstantial, interactional influenceson how work actually gets done, especially how people involve each other in their work. In particular, a model of practice reveals how people accomplish a collaboration through multiple and alternative means of communication, such as meetings, computer tools, and written documents. Choices of what and how to communicate are dependent uponsocial beliefs and behaviors—what people know about each other’s activities, intentions, and capabilities and their understanding of the norms of the group. As a result, Brahms models can help human–computer system designers to understandhow tasks and information actually flowbetween people and machines, what work is required to synchronize individual contributions, and how tools hinder or help this process. In particular, workflow diagrams generated by Brahms arethe emergent product of local interactions between agents and representational artifacts, not pre-ordained, end-to-end paths built in by a modeler. We developed Brahms as a tool to support the design of work by illuminating how formal flow descriptions relate to the social systems of work; we accomplish this by incorporating multiple views—relating people, information, systems, and geography—in one tool. Applications of Brahms could also include system requirements analysis, instruction, implementing software agents, and a workbench for relating cognitive and social theories of human behavior.

Simulating activities: Relating motives, deliberation, and attentive coordination

Activities are located behaviors, taking time, conceived as socially meaningful, and usually involving interaction with tools and the environment. In modeling human cognition as a form of problem solving (goal-directed search and operator sequencing), cognitive science researchers have not adequately studied off-task activities (e.g. waiting), non-intellectual motives (e.g. hunger), sustaining a goal state (e.g. playful interaction), and coupled perceptual-motor dynamics (e.g. following someone). These aspects of human behavior have been considered in bits and pieces in past research, identified as scripts, human factors, behavior settings, ensemble, flow experience, and situated action. More broadly, activity theory provides a comprehensive framework relating motives, goals, and operations. This paper ties these ideas together, using examples from work life in a Canadian High Arctic research station. The emphasis is on simulating human behavior as it naturally occurs, such that working is understood as an aspect of living. The result is a synthesis of previously unrelated analytic perspectives and a broader appreciation of the nature of human cognition. Simulating activities in this comprehensive way is useful for understanding work practice, promoting learning, and designing better tools, including human-robot systems.

Automating CapCom Using Mobile Agents and Robotic Assistants

Mobile Agents (MA) is an advanced Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) communications and computing system to increase astronaut self-reliance and safety, reducing dependence on continuous monitoring and advising from mission control on Earth. MA is voice controlled and provides information verbally to the astronauts through programs called “personal agents.” The system partly automates the role of CapCom in Apollo-including monitoring and managing navigation, scheduling, equipment deployment, telemetry, health tracking, and scientific data collection. Data are stored automatically in a shared database in the habitat/vehicle and mirrored to a site accessible by a remote science team. The program has been developed iteratively in authentic work contexts, including six years of ethnographic observation of field geology. Analog field experiments in Utah enabled empirically discovering requirements and testing alternative technologies and protocols. We report on the 2004 system configuration, experiments, and results, in which an EVA robotic assistant (ERA) followed geologists approximately 150 m through a winding, narrow canyon. On voice command, the ERA took photographs and panoramas and was directed to serve as a relay on the wireless network.

Brahms: a multi-agent modelling environment for simulating work processes and practices

Modelling and simulating work processes is often done at such an abstract level that individual work practice - collaboration, communication, off-task behaviours, multi-tasking, interrupted and resumed activities, informal interactions, use of tools and movements - is left out, making the description of how the work in an organisation actually gets done impossible. This paper describes the Brahms modelling and simulation environment, developed at NASA Ames Research Center. The Brahms modelling language is geared towards modelling peoples activity behaviour, making it an ideal environment for simulating organisational processes at a level that allows the analysis of the work practice and designing new work processes at the implementation level.

Roles for agent assistants in field science: understanding personal projects and collaboration

A human-centered approach to computer systems design involves reframing analysis in terms of the people interacting with each other. The primary concern is not how people can interact with computers, but how work systems (facilities, tools, roles, and procedures) can be designed to help people pursue their personal projects, as they work independently and collaboratively. Two case studies provide empirical requirements. First, an analysis of astronaut interactions with CapCom on Earth during one traverse of Apollo 17 shows what kind of information was conveyed and what might be automated today. A variety of agent and robotic technologies are proposed that deal with recurrent problems in communication and coordination during the analyzed traverse. Second, an analysis of biologists and a geologist working at Haughton Crater in the High Canadian Arctic reveals how work interactions between people involve independent personal projects, sensitively coordinated for mutual benefit. In both cases, an agent or robotic systems role would be to assist people, rather than collaborating, because todays computer systems lack the identity and purpose that consciousness provides.

Modeling and simulating practices, a work method for work systems design

Work systems involve people engaging in activities over time-not just with each other, but also with machines, tools, documents, and other artifacts. These activities often produce goods, services, or-as is the case in the work system described in this article-scientific data. Work systems and work practice evolve slowly over time. The integration and use of technology, the distribution and collocation of people, organizational roles and procedures, and the facilities where the work occurs largely determine this evolution.

Field Science Ethnography: Methods for Systematic Observation on an Expedition

The Haughton-Mars expedition is a multidisciplinary project exploring an impact crater in an extreme environment to determine how people might live and work on Mars. This expedition to the Canadian High Arctic seeks to understand and field test Mars facilities, crew roles, operations, and computer tools. The author combines an ethnographic approach to establish a baseline understanding of how scientists prefer to live and work when relatively unencumbered, with a participatory design approach of experimenting with procedures and tools in the context of use. This article focuses on field methods for systematically recording and analyzing the expeditions activities. Systematic photography and time-lapse video are combined with concept mapping to organize and present information. This hybrid approach is generally applicable to the study of modern field expeditions having a dozen or more multidisciplinary participants, spread over a large terrain during multiple field seasons.

Modeling and Simulation for Mission Operations Work System Design

Work system analysis and design is complex and nondeterministic. In this paper we describe Brahms, a multiagent modeling and simulation environment for designing complex interactions in human-machine systems. Brahms was originally conceived as a business process design tool that simulates work practices, including social systems of work. We describe our modeling and simulation method for mission operations work systems design, based on a research case study in which we used Brahms to design mission operations for a proposed discovery mission to the Moon. We then describe the results of an actual method application project - the Brahms Mars Exploration Rover. Space mission operations are similar to operations of traditional organizations; we show that the application of Brahms for space mission operations design is relevant and transferable to other types of business processes in organizations.

Multi-agent Simulation to Implementation: A Practical Engineering Methodology for Designing Space Flight Operations

OCAMS is a practical engineering application of multi-agent systems technology, involving redesign of the tools and practices in a complex, distributed system. OCAMS is designed to assist flight controllers in managing interactions with the file system onboard the International Space Station. The simulation to implementation development methodology combines ethnography, participatory design, multiagent simulation, and agent-based systems integration. We describe the model of existing operations and how it was converted into a future operations simulation that embeds a multiagent tool that automates part of the work. This hybrid simulation flexibly combines actual and simulated systems (e.g., mail) and objects (e.g., files) with simulated people, and is validated with actual data. A middleware infrastructure for agent societies is thus demonstrated in which agents are used to link arbitrary hardware and software systems to distributed teams of people on earth and in space--the first step in developing an interplanetary multiagent system.

Brahms An Agent-Oriented Language for Work Practice Simulation and Multi-Agent Systems Development

Brahms is a multi-agent modeling language for simulating human work practice that emerges from work processes in organizations. The same Brahms language can be used to implement and execute distributed multi-agent systems, based on models of work practice that were first simulated. Brahms demonstrates how a multi-agent belief-desire-intention language, symbolic cognitive modeling, traditional business process modeling, activity-and situated cognition theories are brought together in a coherent approach for analysis and design of organizations and human-centered systems.