Teaching and leading an ad hoc teammate: Collaboration without pre-coordination Original Research Article

As autonomous agents proliferate in the real world, both in software and robotic settings, they will increasingly need to band together for cooperative activities with previously unfamiliar teammates. In such ad hoc team settings, team strategies cannot be developed a priori. Rather, an agent must be prepared to cooperate with many types of teammates: it must collaborate without pre-coordination. This article defines two aspects of collaboration in two-player teams, involving either simultaneous or sequential decision making. In both cases, the ad hoc agent is more knowledgeable of the environment, and attempts to influence the behavior of its teammate such that they will attain the optimal possible joint utility.