Context-Aware Virtual Agents in Open Environments

This paper presents a model for the interaction between context-aware virtual agents and the environment in which they are situated. This model applies to multiagent based simulation systems dealing with human-like virtual agents in decentralized, continuous, and dynamic environments. The model supports an extensible agent perception module, allowing agents to perceive their environment through multiple senses (sight, hearing, smell, etc.). The environment reacts to agent influences as well as user-invoked stimuli by combining these influences to determine the next state of the environment. This paper introduces a formalization and an implementation of the model and discusses multiple scenarios involving context-aware virtual agents situated in dynamic environments.