Related work on initiative and simulation evaluation

Guinn [30] developed an initiative planning system based on Smith and Hipp's (Section 2.6) meta-level planner. Smith and Hipp's planner employed a user model containing plan rules which were applied to construct the user's piece of the dialogue plan. Alternative initiative settings were available in choosing these. Guinn added a probabilistic model of success to the plan rules, using "factors" associated with the alternative plans available to the agents. With different beliefs about the factors, the agents would produce different estimates of the probability of success of different plans, and therefore there would be conflicts over whether to take the initiative for a plan. The agents could use negotiation dialogues to communicate factor values so that conflicts would be resolved. A simulation evaluation technique was used to show the performance improvement obtained in dialogues where factors are evaluated. This was a similar technique to the one used for the two examples in this chapter, where beliefs were assigned to agents and the resulting dialogues measured.