Coordination and Sociability for Intelligent Virtual Agents

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents a multi-agent framework designed to simulate synthetic humans that properly balance task oriented and social behaviors. The work presented in this paper focuses on the social library integrated in BDI agents to provide socially acceptable decisions. We propose the use of ontologies to define the social relations within an artificial society and the use of a market based mechanism to reach sociability by means of task exchanges. The social model balances rationality, to control the global coordination of the group, and sociability, to simulate relations (e.g. friendliness) and reciprocity among agents. The multi-agent framework has been tested successfully in dynamic environments while simulating a virtual bar, where groups of waiters and customers can interact and finally display complex social behaviors (e.g. task passing, reciprocity, planned meetings).

Recognizing and learning models of social exchange strategies for the regulation of social interactions in open agent societies

“…The works by Grimaldo et al [23][24][25][26][27] presented an interesting application of the Theory of Social Exchanges in the coordination of intelligent virtual agents and sociability in a virtual university bar scenario (in a 3D dynamic environment), modeled as a market-based social model, where groups of different types of waiters (e.g., coordinated, social, egalitarian) and customers (e.g., social, lazy) interact with both the objects in the scene and the other virtual agents. In [26], they presented a multi-modal agent decision making model, called MADeM, in order to provide virtual agents with socially acceptable decisions, coordinated social behaviors (e.g., task passing or planned meetings), based on the evaluation of the social exchanges.…”

Regulating social exchanges in open MAS: The problem of reciprocal conversions between POMDPs and HMMs

“…In particular, Rodrigues and Luck [34] introduced an approach based on the Theory of Social Exchanges for the modeling of interactions in open multiagent systems, presenting a system for analyzing/evaluating partner selection and cooperative interactions in the Bioinformatics domain, which is characterized by frequent, extensive and dynamic exchanges of services. Grimaldo et al [19] presented an application of the Piaget's Theory of Social Exchanges to the coordination of intelligent virtual agents and sociability in a virtual university bar scenario, as a market-based social model, where groups of different types of waiters (e.g., coordinated, social, egalitarian) and customers (e.g., social, lazy) interact with both the objects in the scene and the other virtual agents. In [20], they introduced a multi-modal agent decision making model (MADeM), in order to provide virtual agents with socially acceptable decisions, coordinated social behaviors (e.g., task passing or planned meetings), based on the evaluation of the social exchanges.…”

“…Based on this, theories of social exchanges (e.g., the one introduced by Piaget [30]) have been frequently adopted for the modeling of agent social interactions in different contexts (see, e.g., [11,16,19,29,34]). …”