Presentation
Quantifying Spatial Coordination: Boid-Inspired Flocking Metrics for Team Process and Performance
SessionHPM3: Team Performance
DescriptionIn many operational environments, teams must balance exploration and exploitation while coordinating movement through space. During exploration, team members spread out to search for information or resources; during exploitation, they converge to perform interdependent actions at task locations. These coordination patterns are especially relevant in domains studied by human factors researchers, including search and rescue, military operations, supervisory control, and human-AI teaming.
We examined whether flocking-inspired movement metrics could help characterize these coordination dynamics during a simulated bomb search and disposal task. Three-person teams navigated a virtual environment while searching for bombs, coordinating actions at bomb sites, and adapting their movement behavior over time. Using player telemetry, we calculated three flocking-derived coordination parameters: separation (how much teammates spread apart), cohesion (how tightly teammates moved as a unit), and alignment (how similarly teammates moved in the same direction).
Conventional spatial measures such as area coverage, overlap, and distance traveled captured overall effort and redundancy, but provided limited insight into how teams organized movement as a strategy. Flocking metrics differentiated coordination regimes associated with exploration and exploitation, including distributed search, coordinated convergence, and sustained co-movement across targets.
We examined whether flocking-inspired movement metrics could help characterize these coordination dynamics during a simulated bomb search and disposal task. Three-person teams navigated a virtual environment while searching for bombs, coordinating actions at bomb sites, and adapting their movement behavior over time. Using player telemetry, we calculated three flocking-derived coordination parameters: separation (how much teammates spread apart), cohesion (how tightly teammates moved as a unit), and alignment (how similarly teammates moved in the same direction).
Conventional spatial measures such as area coverage, overlap, and distance traveled captured overall effort and redundancy, but provided limited insight into how teams organized movement as a strategy. Flocking metrics differentiated coordination regimes associated with exploration and exploitation, including distributed search, coordinated convergence, and sustained co-movement across targets.
Contributor
Alternate Presenter
Event Type
Lecture
TimeTuesday, October 20th5:10pm - 5:30pm PDT
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