Mobile Agent Applications in a Distributive Interactive Virtual Environment: The Happy Paradise (HAPA)

Grace S. L. Loo Dean H. S. Ly Bondic C. P. Tang g .1ooCilauckland.ac.nz martial@,ihug.co.nz bcptang@,hotinail.com Department of Management Science & Information Systems, The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. Fax: +64-9-3737566
like its robotic counterpart. With Pattie Maess definition in 1994, this formalisation has propelled the use of agents in software development [Falchuk & Karmouch981. The Intemet has introduced the requirement that agents need to be mobile and be able to communicate in a distributive environment. Thus mobile agents communicate with both local and remote agents and have the capability to migrate between remote hosts selectively. Active research has been ongoing in the area of mobile agents such as the MAgNET [Dasgupta et a1.991; and the use of the PLANET mobile object system for developing mobile software agents [Kato et a1.991. Our research project approach is simplistic compared to these two projects. The intention is to investigate and develop a means that individuals can have a methodology to develop a virtual world easily. Though other researchers such as the Kautz team [ 19941 have described their experiences, our work can still contribute in this area. For the research project, the selected software should be free, easily available and some support freely available. Thus home users can adopt the methodology and download the software for herhis own use. Distributed Interactive Virtual Environment (DIVE3) [Carlsson and Hagsand, 1993; Hagsand, 19961, the final investigated selected software which meets the criteria, is a heterogeneous environment for developing interactive virtual reality applications. DIVE can run in multiple operating system platforms such as SGI, Unix, Linux and Microsoft NT. Thus, it enables users under different operating systems to interact with each other within a single application environment. A great bonus of DIVE is the availability of source codes to developers.

Abstract
The Happy Paradise (HAPA) is a means for end-users to explore different worlds, to investigate different businesses in industry, at close range, in a multimedia setting or to learn about kindness and naturalness of our society. It is meant for teens, adults and professionals to investigate the world(s) of their interest. It is constructed using Distributed Interactive Virtual Environment (DIVE, available on the web), a multimedia visual software that supports distributed multi-users on heterogeneous platforms. f The research project IMAIS explores the design o mobile agents that travel through the various worlds, using evolutionary development paradigm in software engineering. This paper shares with new developers the basic approach and knowledge usefirlfor creating a new virtual world, minimising wastage of time and reducing the steep learning curve. HAPA adopts Beliefs, Desires, Intentions (BDI), Goals and Plans modelling to build enhanced deliberative agents. Fuzty queries from the explorers during their travels are supported. HA PA proposes a simple software engineering approach for new developers to create easily a virtual world for tourism using mobile agents. The tour agent and securi-ity agent creations are used in the presentation of the methodology.
Keywords: Deliberative agent, distributive, fuzzy query, intelligent, security, tourist.

1. Introduction
The usage of agents in software development has made tremendous stride in the quality of software performance this decade. Agents are generally thought of as a personal assistants, restricted to performing local tasks. These software agent [CACM 94; IEEE 991 are capable of performing multiple and repetitive tasks without complaints (with no senses or feeling at all), just

Agents are programs that employ artificial intelligence techniques to provide active assistance to a user with computer-based tasks. Subsequent definition of an agent: an autonomous software object that performs tedious and repetitive computer-based operations on behalf of a human user or another agent. MAgNET: Mobile Agents for Networked Electronic Trading. DIVE is under continuous research and development by its creators at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, with new release a v a h b l e (free) through Intemet.

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Our selected world is the Happy Paradise (HAPA) where visitors (tourists) get an overview of another dimension, a selected new world (such as Western Paradise or Eastern Paradise) beyond earth, where there is perpetual happiness, or an industrial village for manufacturing on earth. When earth people (represented by the graphic figure E-avatar) visits HAPA, they have to be guided and looked after by the security agent (SA) and the tour agent (TA). The research project IMAIS (Intelligent Multi-media Agents for Integrity and Security) develops two agents, namely Security Agent (SA), Tour Agent (TA) for superintending the Happy Paradise. The SA is built for monitoring the safety and order in the HAPA using rules. The TA is responsible for advising end-users on participation during the journey in the HAPA. The TA uses the existing knowledge to generate suggestions in touring. It also leams from new instances via users' responses for solving unanticipated events in the future. IMAIS, in order to arrive at the above features and details for HAPA, the following procedure has been followed: (i). Getting familiar with the required software, hardware and platform. (ii). Creating a HAPA world. (iii). Creating the Security Agent and the Tour Agent. The following sections4 describe some details and the methodology proposed for the design and development of the HAPA system.

Ran the Dive server and several Dive browser to allow multiple user to interact within the same machine, from different Windows NT machine. ... 111. Experimented with the objects in the tutorial, and visiting other worlds. iv. Investigated all the functionality in the menu and quick button. V Viewed source codes on individual object to . understand it structure, with reference to Dive Reference Manual. vi. Learnt about the Dive/TCL interface and define trigger and objects structures.
11.

2.2. AC3D
i. Registered the software (a small educational fee involved). ii. Installed the software by following some of the guidelines in the user manual. iii. Experimented creating our own 3D models with all the features provided.

2.3. Creating the HAPA world

Analysed what the world was to look like, and drew some pictures and plans. Listed and described all the objects that HAPA would 11. contain, and any interaction functionality of the objects. ... 111. Used AC3D for creating complex 3D objects and exported them to Dive. iv. Searched and experimented on reusable functions that have been already created and added them to the required 3D objects. Security Agent and Tour agent were identified, and V. the basic tasks or agent rules were also identified for each of these agents at this stage. vi. Identified how each of these tasks could be performed using a collection of functions from existing objects. vii. Defined how messages would be passed between sensor and agent. viii. implemented and tested the agents, by using the existing functions freely available in source code. New functions were created when none was available.
1.

2. Knowledge of the Required Resources

The main software components used in the development of the virtual worlds (HAPA and others) are DIVE and AC3D5, on Windows NI' Server6 and Workstation. The following notes described our experiences.

2.1. DIVE
i.
Installed DIVE on Windows NT. Version 3 . 3 ~ a was huge improvement to Version 3.2 for Windows NT, in terms of functionality and reliability.

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Some information has been given in note form in order to keep within the specified length for the paper. ' AC3D is a 3-dimentional graphical drawing tool, developed by Andy Colebum, from University Lancaster. The user manual includes the guide line for installation and tutorials. The objects created by AC3D can be exported to the DIVE worlds. The researchers from University Lancaster and The Swedish Institute of Computer Science collaborate closely in these two products. [The author G Loo had spent sabbatical leave at University Lancaster working with the researchers.] Windows NT Server and Workstations were used on Pentium 11 400Mhz, 128 MB of Ram, on a internet and intranet networking structure.

2.4. Fuzzy Logic

Many-valued logic (MVL) proposed that the results of logical propositions could have more than two values [Ackermann, 671. The fuzzy logic extends the knowledge in MVL. This proposition supports the development of the fuzzy logic that there are multiple values between zero

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and one in a (fuzzy) set of data. Thus, the fuzzy logic is favourable to perform approximate reasoning in problem domains that have multiple terms for a variable [Loo et all, 96; Loo, 20001. For instance, the terms 'very' and 'fairly' are the linguistic expressions to describe linguistic variable AGE (such as old and young). To sum up, the higher value the linguistic hedge is, the larger the derivation would be resulted within the acceptance region and vice versa. Thus, the larger derivation induces the larger degree of uncertainty in the problems. The TA and the SA in HAPA applies the metricbased fuzzy set approach to determine the temtory of a paradise and the zone of objects (such as a lotus). Avatars who run across the boundary of a paradise or moving through another object, are against the security policies of a defined paradise. It is favourable to use FL application to determine or monitor the approximate boundary of a paradise and the zone of objects. Besides, the FL application can be a consistent method to determine the size of boundary and zones effectively. Thus, it can maintain the law and order of a paradise by using TA and SA. The linguistic qualifiers adopted in HAPA and the correspondent value are shown in Table 1 below.

object { translation v (RATE*100.0) (RATE*100.0) (RATE*100.0) name "boundary sensor"

...}

An object called billboard is used to define the alert message. billboard { axis 0 1 0 view { name "sign text" material-index 0 texture-index 0 CTEXT 0.5 "Don't Cross the boundary" "default"

1
There are two event functions to register the collision events occurred when an avatar runs across the zone or occupies the same areas as another object. dive-register COLLISION-SIGNAL DIVE-COLLISION [dive-selfJ "" onnocollision dive-register COLLISION-SIGNAL DIVE-NOCOLLISION [dive-self) "" oncollision When the above rules are triggered, four instructions will be invoked to display and to disable the alert message after 2500 milliseconds. set eye [dive-find-sub-byname "bi I Iboardc"] dive-flag $eye invisible OFF dive-sleep 2500 dive-flag $eye invisible ON [dive-selfJ

Linguistic
Qualifier in Size

Value

Linguistic Hedge
Very Reasonable Reasonable Fairly Reasonable

Small

Small-tomedium Medium Medium-tolarge

0.1 0.25 (0.5')

0.5 0.7 1 (Square Root of 0.5)

There are five pre-defined variables to specify five linguistic qualifiers for the size of zone. #define SMALL 0.1 #define SMALL-MEDIUM 0.25 #define MEDIUM 0.5 #define MEDIUM-LARGE 0.71 #define LARGE 0.9 The translation parameters are used to specify the area of zone and object. The product of one of the pre-defined variables and the pre-defined size in 100 Radian can manipulate the size of zone. A variable, RATE can be either one of five pre-defined variables.

3. Design and Development of HAPA

We propose an integration of several software methodologies' for the design of HAPA. The development' of HAPA has been identified into phases (Phase 1, Phase 2, ...) for the project to be more manageable. The evolutionary development method is used as it allows building several prototypes. The first

As listed in the diagram, these are very established methodologies, so no further explanations are given because of lack of space. We have integrated their approaches as in the figure. For further information, contact the authors. This paper discusses only the initial development stage because of the paper length restriction.

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Texture and rendering World-Wide-Web HTTPIFTPIHTMLIMIME TCWTK Dynamic Objects Various 3D object format

Allow realistic images to be the skin of the objects Allows interaction of the world from anybody around the world, with a dive browser, file transfer Allow creation of 3D objects and manipulation. Allow import and export of 3D object to various format types that can be used on other applications. Allow developer to define reusable procedure

C language class and procedural library

Table 2. Main Features of DIVE used for the Development of HAPA prototype is built with core functionality and is testified by users. After that, the second prototype is produced in order to modify and to fulfil the user requirements in the system development. These processes are repeated until the users accept the finished system. The main focus in Phase 1 is to develop a prototype world (HAPA), with a visible tour and security agent that can perform essential basic tasks. features and recommendation of attraction, rules of interaction that has routines resembling an actual human tour guide. A voice-activated feature coming from the Agents will be implemented in the next phase. The TA will be linked to all the assigned areas of interest so they can take the visitor to the required location on the HAPA world. Another agent that will be present in HAPA is the security agent or guard. The SA is the law enforcer of HAPA, and is also linked to several triggers that are designed for security purposes, such as detection of boundary zone and foreign objects deliberately left behind by visitors, or misbehaviour done by the visitor such as continuous clicking on an interactive object. All visitors to the world will be using this simple avatar that will allow the security agent to retrieve information about the history of the persons visit. The avatar will store the characteristic of the user and the users experiences in HAPA.

3.1. A brief description of the HAPA world

The purpose of the visitors tour is for pleasure (sightseeing, as in Disney Land) or for information gathering (visit to a manufacturing plant, or a company). The HAPA world emphasises is on creating a paradise for multicultural interaction. Some of the objects that will be available in the world are trees, buildings, dummy avatars, lotus, footpaths, and basic astral objects that are used to experiment on different basic functionality. DIVE has many features that allow varieties of multimedia data to be used. Table 2 describes some of the features used in the HAPA world. The richness in multimedia facilities makes DIVE an ideal application for creating our virtual Paradise world that will allow multiuser from all the over the world to interact in the emerging technology of roaming freely through cyberspace on the internet. All visitors who arrive in the HAPA world start at the entrance unless another object is already at the entrance. If there is an object that are in the entrance way a message will be sent to the visitor, telling them to retry again in two minutes or any other reason why they can not enter the HAPA. At Phase 1 of HAPA, all visitors are new visitors and will always be greeted by a tour agent (TA) who will inform the visitor about HAPA, via a pop up text browser unless the tour agent is taking visitors on tour. These agents will be physically visible and are automated by the agents rules. The tour agent will inform the visitor of the

4. Conclusion
A simplistic approach for developing a new virtual project by the home user, without much technical and professional training has been presented. An integrated approach to design methodologies have been proposed as shown in the attached figure 1. This methodology is used to analyse and to design agents in the first phase of HAPA. It also ensures that the functional and non-functional requirements can be collected on the viewpoint of Tour agents and Security agents. The IMAIS project is not fully completed yet and is still under development. The results obtained so far have been encouraging.

5. References
Ackermann, R. 1967 An Introdirction to Many-valued Logics, Routledge and Kegan Paul Limited.

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Carlsson, C., and Hagsand, O., 1993 "DIVE - A Multi User Virtual Reality System", IEEE VRAIS, Sept. Carlsson, C., and Hagsand, O., 1993 "DIVE - A Platform for Multi-User Virtual Environments, Computers and Graphics 17(6). Communications of the ACM: Intelligent Agents. 1994, V37.7. July. Dasgupta, P., Narasimhan, N., Moser,L.E. and Melliar-Smith, P. M. 1999. '' MAgNET: Mobile Agents for Networked Electronic Trading" in IEEE Trans on Knoweldge and Data Engineering, VI 1.4, July/August, pp. 509-525. Falchuk, B. and Karmouch, A. 1998. "Visual Modeling for Agent-Based Applications" in IEEE Computer December, pp. 31-38. Hagsand, O., 1996 "Interactive Multiuser VEs in the DIVE System", IEEE Multimedia Magazine, V 3/1. IEEE Computer Society. 1999. IEEE Intelligent Systems and Their Applications - Unmasking Intelligent Agents. IEEE Computer Society Publications Office. MarcNApril. Kato, K., Someya, Y., Matsubara, K., Toumura, K. and Abe, H. 1999. "An Approach to Mobile Software Robots for the W W W '* in IEEE Trans on Knoweldge and Data Engineering, Vi 1.4, July/August, pp. 526-548. Kautz, H., Selman, B. and Coen, M. 1994. "Bottom-Up Design of Software Agents" in Communications of the ACM: Intelligenr Agents. V37.7. July, pp. 145-146.

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1996, LNCS/LNAI 1079 P386-397 Springer- Verla Sommerville, 1. 1995 S o f l a r e Engineering, '5 Edition, Addison-Wesley. Shepherd, D., Scott, A., and Rodden, T., 1999 Distributed Multimedia Applications, University Lancaster report. University Lancaster 2000, February. htt~:/!ww .larics.ac.ukistaffidouaiinwdieee.litinl Wooldridge, M. Jennings, N. 1994 "Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages: A Survey", in Intelligent
f Agents: Proceedings o the ECAI-94 Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, Languages. LNAI 890, Amsterdam,

Springer-Verlag, pp. 1-39.

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