Rapid Evidence Aggregation Supporting Optimal Negotiation (REASON)

Significant research has been undertaken to develop rigorous decision-making processes under the umbrella discipline of Decision Analysis. Unfortunately, most of these systems require a facilitator and are designed for time scales that make them inappropriate in tactical situations. We propose to develop a groupware system for Rapid Expertise Aggregation Supporting Optimal Negotiation (REASON) that avoids the need for a facilitator and supports collaborative decision-making in dynamic, time critical situations. Our target domain in the Phase I work will be tactical decision making for the warfighter. The REASON platform leverages our in-house probabilistic argumentation engine for aggregating uncertain data. We propose to apply cutting edge research on collaborative artifacts, called Coordinating Representations, to improve coordination and reduce the amount of communication that needs to take place within a team. Additionally, REASON will automatically direct the conversation between collaborators in order to streamline the decision-making process, and reduce overall uncertainty.