HARMONIC: Cognitive and Control Collaboration in Human-Robotic Teams

This paper introduces HARMONIC, a cognitive-robotic architecture that integrates the OntoAgent cognitive framework with general-purpose robot control systems applied to human-robot teaming (HRT). We also present a cognitive strategy for robots that incorporates metacognition, natural language communication, and explainability capabilities required for collaborative partnerships in HRT. Through simulation experiments involving a joint search task performed by a heterogeneous team of a UGV, a drone, and a human operator, we demonstrate the system's ability to coordinate actions between robots with heterogeneous capabilities, adapt to complex scenarios, and facilitate natural human-robot communication. Evaluation results show that robots using the OntoAgent architecture within the HARMONIC framework can reason about plans, goals, and team member attitudes while providing clear explanations for their decisions, which are essential prerequisites for realistic human-robot teaming.