Cutting-edge Agent Animation: Trends and Capabilities

1. Agent animation: capabilities, issues, and trends Paolo Petta Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Vienna

2. Introduction • Computer animation developments • Geometry • Resolution, detail • Model-driven dynamics • Ambient physics modeling, Behavioural modeling • Control • Interactivity, communication techniques, autonomy, learning • Population • Multiple actors, distributed systems

3. Typical Applications • Synthetic characters,virtual Humans,visualisation/simulation • Design choices • “Sparse” top-down models vs.“complete” bottom-up models • Application requirements • deep-and-narrow vs. • broad-and-shallow

4. Artificial Intelligence Research topics Robotics User Interface Animation User interfaceforEmotion control Actor behaviouremotion control Vision-basedanimation Path planning Kinematics Dynamics Walkingmodels Objectgrasping Behaviouralanimation Spatialrelationships shape transformation Collision detection Facial animation Clothanimation Musclemodels Collisionresponses Geometric Modelling Finite-element deforma-tions Facedesign Hair Physics ImageSynthesis Skin texture

5. IMPROV (MRL, NYU) • Artistic and commercial applications • Animated staging • Choreography • Interactive multi-user environments • ... • Surface model of mood&emotions • Productivity tool • API for “laypersons”(educators, historians, social scientists)

6. IMPROV • Microlevel: • Procedural animation • Accurate modeling of single actions and all permissible transitions • Statistically controlled parameter randomization for variability and consistency

7. IMPROV • Microlevel: • Behavioural layering • Scripts are classified in a hierarchy according to level of behaviour • User-defined connections between layers define the effective heterarchy • Action selection:deterministic linear scripts or stochastic selection from alternatives • Exclusion of pursuit of conflicting goals at same level • Parallelism across the hierarchy

8. IMPROV • Macrolevel: • Blackboard architecture Characters (attributes + scripts) Avatars Story agent („director“) Stage Manager

9. IMPROV • Macrolevel: • Behaviour layers spanning across groups of agents forcoordinated action • Distributed environment modeling: “Inverse Causality” (=> MOO) • information about interactions is attached to objects • characters are “contaminated” by use (new/update of state variables: competence learning)

10. Edge of Intention (Oz, CMU) • Interactive drama • Believable autonomous characters • Goal-directed • Emotional(folk theory of emotions, OCC) • Simple appearance, emphasis on behaviours(-> internal processing) • Interaction modes • Moving/gesturing, “talking” (typing)

11. TOK architecture • Microlevel • Hap • Goal-oriented reactive action engine • Static plan library • Action behaviours • Emotion behaviours • Sensing behaviours • Sensing of low-level actions of other Woggles • Action blending

12. TOK architecture • Microlevel • Em • Model of emotional and social aspects • Explicit state variables for beliefs and standards of performance • Variables are influenced by comparison of current goal states with events and perceived actions (thresholding)

13. TOK architecture • Microlevel • Behavioural features • Mapping of emotional state to overt behaviour • Manifestation of “personality” • Tight integration of Hap and Em • No need for arbitration

14. TOK architecture behaviour featuresand raw emotions goal successes,failures & creation standardsattitudesemotions Em goalsbehaviours Hap senselanguagequeries senselanguagequeries sensory routines andintegrated sense model The world

15. TOK architecture • Macrolevel: • Fixed plan library encodes all possible communications/interactions

16. ALIVE (MIT Media Lab) • Entertainment • Magic mirror metaphore • Unincumbered immersive environment

17. ALIVE • Microlevel: • Hamsterdam • Behaviour system for action selection • Based on ethological model • Sensory inputs via release mechanism • Loose hierarchy of behaviour groups • “Avalanche effect” for persistent selection • Inhibited behaviours can issue secondary and meta commands • Motor skills layer for coordination of motions • Geometry layer for animation rendering

18. Behaviour ALIVE External World World SensorySystem ReleasingMechanism Goals/Motivations InternalVariable InternalVariable Levelof Interest Inhibition Motor Commands

19. ALIVE

20. ALIVE • Levels of control: • Motivations via variables of single behaviours • “You are hungry” • Directions via motor skills • “Go to that tree” • Tasks via sensory, release, and behaviour systems • “Wag your tail”

21. ALIVE • Increased situatedness • Synthetic vision • For navigation • Generic interface • Plasticity: • reinforcement learning (conditioning)

22. ALIVE • Macrolevel: • Totally distributed control

23. Virtual Humans (Miralab/EPFL) • Goal • Simulation of existing people • Real-time animation of virtual humans that are realistic and recognizable • Inclusion of synthetic sensing capabilities allows simulation of (seemingly) complex capabilities,e.g. real-time tennis

24. Virtual Humans • Issues requiring compromising • Surface modeling • Deformation • Skeletal animation • Locomotion • Grasping • Facial animation • Shadows • Clothes • Skin • Hair

25. Virtual Humans • Methodology • Modeling: • Prototype-based • Head and hand sculpting • Layered body definition:Skeleton, Volume, Skin • Animation: • Skeleton motioncaptured, play-back, computed • Body deformationfor realistic rendering of joints • Detailled hand and facial animation

26. Virtual Humans • Synthetic sensing as a main information channel between virtual environment and digital actor(since ca. 1990) • Synthetic audition, vision and tactile • Differs fundamentally from robotic sensing:direct access to semantic information

27. Virtual Humans • Example: synthetic vision • Environment is perceived from a field-of-view that is rendered from the actor’s point of view • Access to pixel attributes:color, distance,index to semantic information • Simple case: color coding of objects=> perception of color = recognition of object • Object attributes areretrieved directly from the simulation

28. Virtual Humans • Navigation: • Path planning & obstace avoidance • Global navigation: • Based on prelearned model • Determines the global navigation goal • Local navigation • Purely indexical, based on sensing=> No need for model of environment=> No need for current position • Three modules: • synthetic vision, controller, performer

29. Virtual Humans • Navigation controller: • Regularly invokes vision to retrieve updated state of environment • Creates temporary local goals if an obstacle “up front” • Local goals are determined by obstacle-specific Displacement local automata

30. Virtual Humans • Interaction with the environment:Smart Objects • Each modeled object includes detailled solutions for each possible interaction with the object • Objects are modeled according to situated decomposition

31. Virtual Humans • Smart Objects include: • Description of moving parts, physical properties, semantic index(purpose and design intent) • Information for each possible interaction: position of interaction part, position and gesture information for the actor (capacity limits!) • Object behaviours with state variables (=> actor state info) • Triggered agent behaviours

32. Virtual Humans • Example: virtual tennis • Actor model based on stack machine of state automata • Actor state can change according to currently active automaton and sensorial input

33. Virtual Humans Architectureof behaviourcontrol

34. Virtual Humans Tennisgameautomata sequence

35. JACK (UPenn) • Ergonomic environment analysis • Workplace assessment • Product evaluation • Device interfaces • Logistics

36. JACK • Microlevel: • Biomechanically correct model • Synthetic sensors for high-level behaviours • Three-level architecture realising “truly situated” low-level behaviour

37. PaT-Net object-specific and genericsymbolic reasoning capabilites controlsystems stimulus           perceptual                             motor             response modules behaviours JACK • Microlevel (learned sense-control-act loop parameters)

38. JACK • Macrolevel • Taskable virtual agent • Global intentions and expectations of all characters are statically captured (explicitly anticipated) • Parallel Transition networks

39. JACK • Macrolevel: PaT Net

40. Topics for Discussion • “Completeness” of modeling • “True” agent characteristics(Wooldridge&Jennings) • Autonomy • Social abilities • Reactivity • Pro-activeness

41. Topics for Discussion • The “TLA Debate” • Situatedness/synthetic sensing • Variability/adaptiveness/plasticity • Believability

42. Modelling completeness • “Sparse” models • Abstract, “top down” • Based on explicit, reified design elements • Bridging/obviating of full detail by careful selection of modeled elements • Broader coverage at differing resolution • Believability/impression over fidelity • (Bound to) Lose in the long run?

43. Modelling completeness • “Complete” models • Situated, “bottom up” • Depend on balanced design(including environment&coupling) • Limited coverage/complexity • Allow for flexible action-selection • Fidelity over believability/impression • Win in the long run?

44. Autonomy (McFarland/Boesser) • Automaton:state-dependent behaviour • Autonomous agent:self-controlling, motivated • Motivation:reversable internal processes that are responsible for changes in behaviour • Multiple goals/actions are the rule!=> concurrency, transitioning • Insights on own skills&conditions of applicability

45. Social abilities • “Deep” agent modeling • Of the self: BDI and variants • Of others (recursively) • Of the society • Coordination • Communication • Generation&understanding of facial expressions, postures, gestures, task execution, text/speech,… • (social) Emotions(including display rules)

46. Social abilities • From Action Selection to Action expression • Sign management: context-dependent behaviour sematics • What should an agent do at any point in order to best communicate its goals and activities? • Goal: increase comprehensibility of behaviour

47. Believability • Quality vs. correctness • Self-motivation • pursuit of multiple simultaneous goals • => entails requirement of broad capabilities • Personality/Emotion • Plasticity/change over time • Situatedness • social skills • affordances

48. And then... • Methodologies for assembly of architectures with understandable/predicatable (motivated, goal-directed,…) behaviour • Agent control systems • Persistency, plasticity • Agent animation as simulation