Animating groups of Socially Intelligent Agents

This paper presents a multi-agent framework oriented to animate groups of synthetic humans that properly balance task-oriented and social behaviors. We mainly focus on the social model designed for BDI-agents to display socially acceptable decisions. This model is based on an auction mechanism used to coordinate the group activities derived from the character´s roles. The model also introduces reciprocity relations between the members of a group and allows the agents to include social tasks to produce realistic behavioral animations. Furthermore, a conversational library provides the set of plans to manage social interactions and to animate from simple chats to more complex negotiations. The framework has been successfully tested in a 3D dynamic environment while simulation a virtual university bar, where groups of waiters and customers can interact and finally display complex social behaviors (e.g. task passing, reciprocity, planned meetings...).