Learning-based cognitive architecture for enhancing coordination in human groups

As interactions with autonomous agents—ranging from robots in physical settings to avatars in virtual and augmented realities—become more prevalent, developing advanced cognitive architectures is critical for enhancing the dynamics of human-avatar groups. This paper presents a reinforcement-learning-based cognitive architecture, trained via a sim-to-real approach, designed to improve synchronization in periodic motor tasks, crucial for applications in group rehabilitation and sports training. Extensive numerical validation consistently demonstrates improvements in synchronization. Theoretical derivations and numerical investigations are complemented by preliminary experiments with real participants, showing that our avatars can integrate seamlessly into human groups, often being indistinguishable from humans.