Towards fluid human-agent collaboration: From dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoning
Collaborating in real-life situations rarely follows predefined roles or plans, but is established on the fly and flexibly coordinated by the interacting agents. We introduce the notion of fluid collaboration (FC), marked by frequent changes of the tasks partners assume or the resources they consume...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Robotics and AI |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2025.1532693/full |
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| _version_ | 1849706867818758144 |
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| author | Florian Schröder Fabian Heinrich Stefan Kopp |
| author_facet | Florian Schröder Fabian Heinrich Stefan Kopp |
| author_sort | Florian Schröder |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Collaborating in real-life situations rarely follows predefined roles or plans, but is established on the fly and flexibly coordinated by the interacting agents. We introduce the notion of fluid collaboration (FC), marked by frequent changes of the tasks partners assume or the resources they consume in response to varying requirements or affordances of the environment, tasks, or other agents. FC thus necessitates dynamic, action-oriented Theory of Mind reasoning to enable agents to continuously infer and adapt to others’ intentions and beliefs in real-time. In this paper, we discuss how FC can be enabled in human-agent collaboration. We introduce Cooperative Cuisine, an interactive environment inspired by the game Overcooked! that facilitates human-human and human-agent collaboration in dynamic settings. We report results of an empirical study on human-human collaboration in CoCu, showing how FC can be measured empirically and that humans naturally engage in dynamically established collaboration patterns with minimal explicit communication and relying on efficient mentalizing. We then present an approach to develop artificial agents that can effectively participate in FC. Specifically, we argue for a model of dynamic mentalizing under computational constraints and integrated with action planning. We present first steps in this direction by addressing resource-rational and action-driven ToM reasoning. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2ee36a908314432fa2cdbec142111201 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2296-9144 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Robotics and AI |
| spelling | doaj-art-2ee36a908314432fa2cdbec1421112012025-08-20T03:16:04ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Robotics and AI2296-91442025-08-011210.3389/frobt.2025.15326931532693Towards fluid human-agent collaboration: From dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoningFlorian SchröderFabian HeinrichStefan KoppCollaborating in real-life situations rarely follows predefined roles or plans, but is established on the fly and flexibly coordinated by the interacting agents. We introduce the notion of fluid collaboration (FC), marked by frequent changes of the tasks partners assume or the resources they consume in response to varying requirements or affordances of the environment, tasks, or other agents. FC thus necessitates dynamic, action-oriented Theory of Mind reasoning to enable agents to continuously infer and adapt to others’ intentions and beliefs in real-time. In this paper, we discuss how FC can be enabled in human-agent collaboration. We introduce Cooperative Cuisine, an interactive environment inspired by the game Overcooked! that facilitates human-human and human-agent collaboration in dynamic settings. We report results of an empirical study on human-human collaboration in CoCu, showing how FC can be measured empirically and that humans naturally engage in dynamically established collaboration patterns with minimal explicit communication and relying on efficient mentalizing. We then present an approach to develop artificial agents that can effectively participate in FC. Specifically, we argue for a model of dynamic mentalizing under computational constraints and integrated with action planning. We present first steps in this direction by addressing resource-rational and action-driven ToM reasoning.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2025.1532693/fullfluid collaborationtheory of minddynamic mentalizinghuman-agent collaborationaction-oriented reasoningcooperative cuisine |
| spellingShingle | Florian Schröder Fabian Heinrich Stefan Kopp Towards fluid human-agent collaboration: From dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoning Frontiers in Robotics and AI fluid collaboration theory of mind dynamic mentalizing human-agent collaboration action-oriented reasoning cooperative cuisine |
| title | Towards fluid human-agent collaboration: From dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoning |
| title_full | Towards fluid human-agent collaboration: From dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoning |
| title_fullStr | Towards fluid human-agent collaboration: From dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoning |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards fluid human-agent collaboration: From dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoning |
| title_short | Towards fluid human-agent collaboration: From dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoning |
| title_sort | towards fluid human agent collaboration from dynamic collaboration patterns to models of theory of mind reasoning |
| topic | fluid collaboration theory of mind dynamic mentalizing human-agent collaboration action-oriented reasoning cooperative cuisine |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2025.1532693/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT florianschroder towardsfluidhumanagentcollaborationfromdynamiccollaborationpatternstomodelsoftheoryofmindreasoning AT fabianheinrich towardsfluidhumanagentcollaborationfromdynamiccollaborationpatternstomodelsoftheoryofmindreasoning AT stefankopp towardsfluidhumanagentcollaborationfromdynamiccollaborationpatternstomodelsoftheoryofmindreasoning |