Experiencing Belugas: Action selection for an interactive aquarium exhibit

This paper presents a case study of an action selection
system designed with adaptive techniques to create a
virtual beluga aquarium exhibit. The beluga interactive
exhibit uses a realistic 3D simulation system that
allows the virtual belugas, in a natural pod context, to
learn and alter their behavior based on contextual
visitor interaction. Ethogram information on beluga
behavior was incorporated into the simulation, which
uses physically based systems for natural whale
locomotion and water, artificial intelligence systems
including modified neural networks and a reactive
hierarchical action selection mechanism to simulate
real-time natural individual beluga and group behavior.
The beluga’s behavioral system consists of two layers:
a low-level navigation system and a high-level reaction
hierarchical action selection system. The system is
designed to be run on consumer level hardware while
maintaining real-time speeds.