Populating VBS2 with realistic virtual actors

Synthetic environments, particularly those that are built upon video games engines, offer impressive photo-realistic rendering of 3D environments. In parallel, human behaviour representations are becoming increasingly rich, building upon results from the cognitive and affective sciences. This paper reports on the integration of the cognitive architecture, CoJACK™ with the 3D training environment, VBS2™. CoJACK is a BDI (Beliefs/Desire/ Intentions) cognitive architecture that has a tightly integrated moderator layer, supporting the investigation of the effects of affect on decision making. A suicide bomber scenario is described in which "fear" and "morale" moderators significantly influence the behaviour of the virtual actors. The resulting behaviour is compellingly realistic and human observers readily attribute and believe in an account of the motivational underpinnings of the actors' actions. The integration of CoJACK with VBS2 offers the prospect of much richer training environments where virtual actors behave in a variable though repeatable fashion, providing trainees with a truly challenging situation.