1,721,035 research outputs found
The Next Step Towards a Functional Markup Language
Full text linkHeylen D, Kopp S, Marsella S, Pelachaud C, Vilhjalmsson H. The Next Step Towards a Functional Markup Language. In: Proc. of Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2008). LNAI, 5208. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2008: 270-280.In order to enable collaboration and exchange of modules for generating multimodal communicative behaviours of robots and virtual agents, the SAIBA initiative envisions the definition of two representa- tion languages. One of these is the Functional Markup Language (FML). This language specifies the communicative intent behind an agent's be- haviour. Currently, several research groups have contributed to the dis- cussion on the definition of FML. The discussion reveals agreement on many points but it also points out important issues that need to be dealt with. This paper summarises the current state of affairs in thinking about FML
Study and deployment of human-agent collective based on tast allocation for a disaster response solution
No full textJapón es uno de los países asiáticos con mayor experiencia en amenazas naturales. En consecuencia, el país nipón está a la vanguardia en la prevención y gestión frente a desastres. De entre los medios que proporcionan gobierno y ciudadanía, se incluye el despliegue de equipos compuestos por drones. Diversos estudios confirman su utilidad, siendo más agiles y económicos que el despliegue de helicópteros en operaciones de pequeña o media escala.
Por otro lado, las soluciones desarrolladas con sistemas multi-agente han demostrado ser un buen enfoque frente a problemas de toma de decisiones y reparto de tareas. Literatura reciente destaca la interacción usuario-agente en forma de colaboración, dada la pro-actividad y autonomía de los agentes. Dicho esto, se plantea que las operaciones con drones pueden ser aún más productivas a través de esta tecnología.
El presente Trabajo de Fin de Máster se enmarca en el proyecto DRONET. Dicho proyecto tiene como objetivo desarrollar una solución de respuesta a desastres con drones. La solución propuesta en este TFM consiste en el despliegue de un colectivo humano-agente. El colectivo está compuesto por un equipo de drones inteligentes que automatizan el reparto de tareas y un equipo de usuarios que supervisan y controlan la operación. Para la implementación del sistema multi-agente, se ha optado por estudiar soluciones basadas en optimización distribuida y asignación automática de tareas.
La solución desarrollada ha cumplido los requisitos marcados y ha supuesto un complemento importante para el proyecto. El sistema responde adecuadamente a un entorno dinámico, proporcionando estabilidad y escalabilidad a la operación en función de las circunstancias. También se ha demostrado una mejora en la carga de trabajo y satisfacción del usuario, delegando las acciones al equipo dron e interviniendo solo cuando sea necesario.
Los resultados han sido tan prometedores que la solución se ha incluido dentro de los test del proyecto en entornos reales, concretamente en los experimentos en la región de Okutama (prefectura de Tokio) durante julio de 2016.---ABSTRACT---Japan is one of the Asian countries with the greatest experience in natural hazards. Consequently, the country is at the forefront in disaster prevention and management. Among the resources and means providing by government and citizens, drone teams are included. Several studies confirm their usefulness, being more agile and economic than helicopters in small or medium-scale operations.
On the other hand, solutions based on multi-agent system have proven to be a good approach for addressing problems related with decision making and distributed task allocation. The current literature highlights the user-agent interaction as a new form of collaboration, given the pro-activity and autonomy of agents. Having said that, it is proposed that drone operations can be even more productive by applying this technology.
The current Master Final Project is part of the DRONET project. This project aims to develop a disaster response solution using drones. The proposal of this TFM is the deployment of a human-agent collective. The collective is comprised of a team of intelligent drones that automate the task distribution and a team of users that monitor and manage the operation. For the multi-agent system deployment, it has chosen to study literature based on distributed optimization and automated task allocation.
The developed solution has fulfilled the marked requirements and has been an important complement to the project. The system responds appropriately to dynamic environments, providing stability and scalability to operations depending on their circumstances. It has also been proven an improvement on user workload and satisfaction by delegating actions to drone team and intervening only when necessary.
Results have been so promising that the solution has been included into the milestones for real-world testing; particularly, in the set of experiments in Okutama region (Tokyo Prefecture) during July 2016
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
A Cyber-Physical System Simulator for risk-free transport studies
No full textThe article introduces a novel platform for conducting controlled and risk-free driving and traveling behavior studies, called Cyber-Physical System Simulator (CPSS). The key features of CPSS are: \ud
(1) simulation of multiuser immersive driving in a threedimensional (3D) virtual environment; \ud
(2) integration of traffic and communication simulators with human driving based on dedicated middleware; and \ud
(3) accessibility of multiuser driving simulator on popular software and hardware platforms. \ud
This combination of features allows us to easily collect large-scale data on interesting phenomena regarding the interaction between multiple user drivers, which is not possible with current single-user driving simulators. The core original contribution of this article is threefold:\ud
(1) we introduce a multiuser driving simulator based on DiVE, our original massively multiuser networked 3D virtual\ud
environment; \ud
(2) we introduce OpenV2X, a middleware for simulating vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communication; and \ud
(3) we present two experiments based on our CPSS platform. The first experiment investigates the “rubbernecking” phenomenon, where a platoon of four user drivers experiences an accident in the oncoming direction of traffic. Second, we report on a pilot study about the effectiveness of a Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems advisory system
An experimental space for conducting controlled driving behavior studies based on a multiuser networked 3D virtual environment and the scenario markup language
No full textWe present a new framework for conducting controlled\ud
driving behavior studies based on multiuser networked 3-D\ud
virtual environments. \ud
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The framework supports: \ud
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1) the simulation of multiuser immersive driving; \ud
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2) the visualization of surrounding traffic; \ud
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3) the specification and creation of reproducible traffic\ud
scenarios; \ud
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and \ud
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4) the collection of meaningful driving behavior data. \ud
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We use our framework to investigate the “rubbernecking”\ud
phenomenon, which refers to the slowing down of a driver due to an accident on the opposite side of the road, and its effect on the following drivers. \ud
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The main contribution of the paper is the Scenario Markup\ud
Language (SML) framework, which is composed of:\ud
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1) the SML as a practical tool to specify dynamic traffic situations(e.g., an accident) and \ud
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2) the Scenario Control System to ensure the\ud
reproducibility of particular traffic situations, so that traffic engineers can obtain comparable data and draw valid conclusions. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework, we specified the traffic accident scenario in SML and conducted a study about the rubbernecking phenomenon.\ud
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We report on the results of our study from two viewpoints: \ud
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1) the reproducibility of the traffic accident\ud
situation (i.e., state variables of interest are recreated successfully in 78% of the cases); and \ud
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2) the interactive car-following behavior of human subjects embedded in the traffic situation of the virtual environment
Predicting Listener Backchannels: A Probabilistic Multimodal Approach
Full text linkDuring face-to-face interactions, listeners use backchannel feedback such as head nods as a signal to the speaker that the communication is working and that they should continue speaking. Predicting these backchannel opportunities is an important milestone for building engaging and natural virtual humans. In this paper we show how sequential probabilistic models (e.g., Hidden Markov Model (HMM) or Conditional Random Fields (CRF)) can automatically learn from a database of human-to-human interactions to predict listener backchannels using the speaker multimodal output features (e.g., prosody, spoken words and eye gaze). The main challenges addressed in this paper are automatic selection of the relevant features and optimal feature representation for probabilistic models. For prediction of visual backchannel cues (i.e., head nods), our prediction model shows a statistically significant improvement over a previously published approach based on hand-crafted rules
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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