Axel Buendia

• PhD Artificial Intelligence
• National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts

In this study, we observe how a video game creation activity with an escape game template can enhance the acquisition of 21st century skills among high school students. In Game Development-Based Learning (GDBL), the use of customisable template eases the technical cost of entry, provides a structure to guide and motivate students as well as provide...

Many areas in computer science are facing the need to analyze, quantify and reproduce movements expressing emotions. This paper presents a systematic review of the intelligible factors involved in the expression of emotions in human movement and posture. We have gathered the works that have studied and tried to identify these factors by sweeping ma...

This paper presents a motivation-based model in order to explore crowd behavior. The case study is about what motivates the decision processes of passengers about choice of location on the station platform for ingressing and egressing trains. The goal of the research is twofold: to establish a cognitive generic crowd behavior modeling method and to...

This paper describes our research investigating the perception of difficulty in video games, defined as players’ estimation of their chances of failure. We discuss our approach as it relates to psychophysical studies of subjective difficulty and to cognitive psychology research into the overconfidence effect. The starting point for our study was th...

This paper introduces issues about a methodology for the design of serious games that help players/learners understand their decision-making process. First, we discuss the development of a video game system based on a role-switching mechanic where the player becomes the game leader of the experience. Then, we introduce game mechanics designed to in...

This paper deals with the design and the evaluation of human-like robot movements. Three criteria were proposed and evaluated regarding their impact on the human-likeness of the robot movements: the inertia of the base, the inertia of the end-effector and the velocity profile. A specific tool was designed to generate different levels of anthropo-mo...

Cet article présente les enjeux relatifs à la conception de jeux sérieux permettant au joueur-apprenant de mieux comprendre la manière dont il prend une décision. La dimension analytique est au cœur des problématiques de gameplay : quelles sont les mécaniques qui permettraient de faire prendre conscience au joueur de son comportement comme décideur...

This paper introduces issues about a methodology for the design of serious games that help the player/learner understand their decision-making process. First, we discuss the development of a video game system based on a switching-role mechanic where the player can become the game leader of the experience. Then, we propose a set of rules to address...

For a socially intelligent robot, different levels of situation assessment are required, ranging from basic processing of sensor input to high-level analysis of semantics and intention. However, the attempt to combine them all prompts new research challenges and the need of a coherent framework and architecture. This paper presents the situation as...

A lot of progress have been made in the domain of human-machine dialogue, but it is still a real challenge and, most often, only informative cooperative kind of dialogues are explored. This paper tries to explore the ability of a robot to create and maintain a long-term social relationship through more advanced dialogue techniques. We expose the so...

We present a fully procedural method capable of generating in real-time a wide range of locomotion for multi-legged characters in a dynamic environment, without using any motion data. The system consists of several independent blocks: a Character Controller, a Gait/Tempo Manager, a 3D Path Constructor and a Footprints Planner. The four modules work...

We propose a pseudo-physics system and a spine model that can be coupled to generate life-like locomotion animations of quadrupeds and reptiles. The pseudo-physics system uses minimalist particle-based physics and values of the gait pattern to generate the sinusoidal-like ballistic movement of the pelvis observed in nature. While the spine model us...

In this study we propose an innovative decision making engine for interactive person following for a mobile social robot. The developed engine combines 1. A Strategy controller that selects the strategy to apply 2. A Multiple-Objective system that provides to the robot the way to perform this strategy. We show the performances of this system by two...

In this study we propose an innovative decision making engine for interactive person following for a mobile social robot. The developed engine combines 1. A Strategy controller that selects the strategy to apply 2. A Multiple-Objective system that provides to the robot the way to perform this strategy. We show the performances of this system by two...

In this paper, the authors propose a generic controller which performs the synthesis of complex humanoid whole-body behaviors. It also illustrates the combination of a low level controller based on weighted tasks mixed with a LQP, and a high level controller based on goals and actions. This association is useful for non deterministic scenarios, and...

We propose a system capable in real time of adding controllable and plausible oscillating physical like reaction effects in response to external forces (perturbations). These oscillating effects may be used to modify a motion or to customize it in a cartoon like way. The core of our system is based on several connected 3D pendulums with a propagati...

This paper describes the DEEP project (Dialogs taking into account Experience, Emotions and Personality, adapted to computer games), which started in June 2006. The aim of the project is to provide generic solutions for the integration of autonomous Non Player Characters (NPCs) in next-generation adventure games. DEEP NPCs, equipped with a personal...

This paper describes a preliminary experiment made at the IIMLab in order to design digital creatures in real-time three-dimensional virtual worlds. The aim of the project is to integrate state-of-the-art Artificial Life techniques with real-time 3D graphical engines in the framework of the next generation immersive 3D games.