Princess Cassie: An Embodied Cognitive Agent in a Virtual World

This thesis presents the development of an embodied cognitive agent called Princess Cassie and her implementation as a cognitive actor in a Virtual Reality drama. This work effectively bridges the gap between, and builds upon previous work carried out on cognitive agent modeling and development and work carried out on the development of dramatic agents that are richly expressive, believable and that portray characters with emotional depth. Princess Cassie is expected to serve as an ideal test framework, upon which an effective model of cognitive agency for dramatic and socially interesting agents can be built. Several issues central to the development of such embodied cognitive agency have been considered and implemented in this implementation. Princess Cassie’s capabilities include: an ability to identify and process a rich array of perceptual information both about the world and about its own embodiment; true multi-modal behavior involving several channels of asynchronous communication between the mind and the body; adherence to a tight script for performance; a sophisticated model for interrupt and contingency handling; achievement of goals by the formulation and execution of plans and ability to dissemble effectively in the face of unpredictability in the scene. The development and subsequent implementation of Princess Cassie has allowed us to experiment with the various ways that an embodied cognitive agent can be used to effectively enhance a VR experience for a human user. This work has been carried out as part of a larger project which has the goal of eventually constructing an entire dramatic story around a human user, in which all the actors are computational agents sophisticated enough to draw dramatic responses from the user. The agent presented in this thesis therefore represents a first step towards accomplishing this goal.