Human Social-Motor Solutions for Human-Machine Interaction in Dynamical Task Contexts

Code repository for the Dyadic Shepherding Task.
The repository is managed by Dr. Patrick Nalepka (@ShortFox) and Prof. Michael J. Richardson (@xkiwilabs).

Experiment 1	Experiment 2

Acknowledgements

When referencing the original study investigating human coordination during the dyadic shepherding task, please cite the following:

• Nalepka, P., Kallen, R. W., Chemero, A., Saltzman, E., & Richardson, M. J. (2017). Herd those sheep: Emergent multi-agent coordination and behavioral mode switching. Psychological Science, 28(5), 630-650

When referencing the original study investigating human-machine interaction during the dyadic shepherding task, and when using code taken from this repository, please cite the following:

• Nalepka, P., Lamb, M., Kallen, R. W., Shockley, K., Chemero, A., Saltzman, E., & Richardson, M. J. (2019). Human social motor solutions for human-machine interaction in dynamical task contexts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(4), 1437-1446. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.1813164116

Background Information and Play Online

Click here for background information regarding the work, a video, and an online web player to play/watch the dyadic shepherding task (note: you will be prompted to install Unity WebGL to use the web player).

Using Compiled Version of Software

To play the shepherding task with the artificial-agent, or to observe two artificial-agents complete the task, download the contents inside the subfolder that matches your operating system located in the Compiled Software folder. Note, all the contents need to be in the same location for the software to run.

1. Open the executable. The following screen should appear:

2. Click on the experiment image you would like to play/watch.
3. Select one of the following options:

• Mouse to control the orange cube/sheepdog and play with the artificial-agent using your mouse.
• Observe to watch two artificial-agents complete the task.

4. Select Start to initiate the task environment.

• If playing, move your player to the black start location located near the bottom of the game screen to initiate a trial.

5. To return to the title screen at any time, press the Escape key.

Code Contents

Note: Unity is required to view and edit the software. The code was created and tested using Unity Release 2017.4.16f1.

• Once downloaded, import the Unity package titled Human-Machine-Shepherding

Summary of content within the Scripts folder.

• Common Scripts
  • MenuGUI Handles interaction with TitleScreen scene.
  • SheepDynamics Handles the behavior of the sheep for both Experiments 1 and 2.
• Experiment 1 Scripts
  • Game_Director_Exp1 Handles trial management for Experiment 1.
  • Dog_Behavior_ArtificialAgent_Exp1 Handles sheep selection and player/artificial-agent behavior for Experiment 1.
  • FenceCollideCheck_Exp1 Sends trial failure message to Game_Director_Exp1 on sheep collision with fence.
• Experiment 2 Scripts
  • Game_Director_Exp2 Handles trial management for Experiment 2.
  • Dog_Behavior_ArtificialAgent_Exp2 Handles sheep selection and player/artificial-agent behavior for Experiment 2.
  • FenceCollideCheck_Exp2 Sends repulsive force when sheep makes collision with fence.

Comments are included throughout to assist with comprehension.