Teamwork is becoming increasingly critical in multiagent environments
ranging from virtual environments for training and education, to infor
mation integration of the internet, to potential multirobotic space mi
ssions. Teamwork in such complex, dynamic environments is more than a
simple union of simultaneous individual activity, even if supplemented
with preplanned coordination. Indeed, in these dynamic environments,
unanticipated events can easily cause a breakdown in such preplanned c
oordination. The central hypothesis in this article is that for effect
ive teamwork, agents should be provided explicit representation of tea
m goals and plans, as well as an explicit representation of a model of
teamwork to support the execution of team plans. In our work, this mo
del of teamwork takes thr form of a set of domain independent rules th
at clearly outline an agent's commitments and responsibilities as a pa
rticipant in team activities, and thus guide the agent's social activi
ties while executing team plans. This article describes two implementa
tions of agent-teams based on the above principles, one for a real-wor
ld helicopter combat simulation, and one for the RoboCup soccer simula
tion. The article also provides a preliminary comparison of the two ag
ent-teams to illustrate some of the strengths and weaknesses of RoboCu
p as a common test bed for multiagent systems.