Using Software Agents in a Work Centered Support System for Weather Forecasting and Monitoring

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in developing system architectures and human-software agent interaction paradigms that deploy software agents in the service of effective support for human task performance. This paper describes an agent-based system for a weather forecasting and monitoring application, called Work Centered Support System for Global Weather Management (WCSS-GWM), that takes this approach. WCSS-GWM exemplifies and extends Cognitive Engineering (CE) principles for effecting human-software agent interaction and Work Centered Support System (WCSS) concepts. Two fundamental CE principles are observability and directability. Users need to be able to ‘see’ what the software agents are doing and be able to re-direct the software agents as task demands change. The WCSS brings an additional, complementary perspective, emphasizing the need to support the multiple facets involved in individual cognitive and collaborative work (decision-making, product development, collaboration, and work management). The WCSS-GWM agent-based architecture is explicitly designed with these objectives in mind.

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