Multidisciplinary Research & Development of Multi-Agents and Virtual Humans Leveraging Integrated Middleware Platforms

Abstract: The current pace of technological advancements has led to an ever-increasing availability of technologies to investigate and help address the challenges that contemporary society faces today. However, while this trend increases the potential for creating more relevant, effective, and efficient solutions, it also inherently increases the complexity of realizing that potential. Our work aims to manage this complexity through the creation and dissemination of integrated middleware platforms that enable researchers and developers to rapidly prototype novel solutions within the areas of modelling & simulation, virtual humans, and virtual worlds. In this paper, we discuss two related platforms: the Rapid Integration & Development Environment (RIDE) and the Virtual Human Toolkit (VHToolkit). Specifically, we explore two use cases: 1) the development of an authoring tool aimed at domain experts to rapidly create low-echelon military training scenarios, and 2) the development of a virtual human led mHealth wellness and suicide prevention app for veterans.

Keywords: Systems Integration, Systems Engineering, Embodied Conversational Agents, Virtual Humans, 3D Geospatial Terrain, Toolkits, Virtual Worlds, R&D Middleware Solutions

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004497

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