GerminationX Companion

Through the Lirec project we have access to a state of the art AI system based on fatima, a multi agent system developed originally for the Fear Not game.

This system is capable of simulating multiple characters who can be programmed with differing emotional traits, and specific attitudes to other agents or objects. The agents are given goals and actions with which to achieve them. Objects, other agents and the results of actions are appraised with regard to the agent's goals and their emotional state is modified to suit. In robotic/artificial companion research the term “affective” is preferred to “emotional” as the former is less ambiguous and more defined than the latter.

The existing Lirec research is involved with examining one to one relationships between a human and an artificial companion, or many to one relationships (such as spirit of the building scenario). This game gives us an opportunity to examine relationships between many more people, with the accessibility of an online game.

The AgentMind consists of multiple Java processes, a server providing the world and it's contents, and a client for each companion. The player is represented as another agent. All agents can perceive of the other agents are their actions and some external symbolic signals (such as expression). In recent versions the agents form a “theory of mind” of the other agents - an approximation of the other's internal state based on their perception, including the player's agent.

In terms of scalability, ~10 agents can be run on a normal machine at this time. Each would be able to interact with multiple players at the same time, and each other. We would need to be able to limit the number of users interacting with each agent at a time.