Data-Driven Virtual Environment Assembly and Operation Virtual Iron Bird Workshop – Naval Postgraduate School (04/02/2004) I. Background II. BrahmsVE Platform III. BrahmsVE/SimStation Online

I.Background 1998 – Database “Lego” experimental assembly of an online event (Avatars98, Inside Cybespace)

I.Background Database assembly of space, but also database/agent operation: “booth bot”, “slide-changing bot”

I.Background NASA Needs: STS-61, Hubble Repair training (JSC 1993)

II. BrahmsVE Platform A virtual environment platform for discrete agent work practice simulation Begun in 1999, models of activities aboard Mars Analog Habitats FMARS and MDRS (SimHab) Humans and robotics in future mission concepts, modeled from captured habitat crew activities Backed by database/multi-agent system (Brahms)

II. BrahmsVE Platform Building “real-world” interfaces for a multi-agent work-practice simulator AgentViewer 2D interface Virtual Environment 3D interface

II. BrahmsVE Architecture High level components Web-based 3D player (Adobe Atmosphere) with AX components Javascript/SOAP, PHP and MySQL-based lightweight protocols Brahms, Java-based agent system 3D Content: XML schemas, Atmosphere/VP models, Havok physics Synchronized, multi-user collaboration, chat, voice

II. Architecture of BrahmsVE Internal engine fundamental building blocks

II. BrahmsVE/SimHab Modeling process Video and other activity capture Geographic model: waypoints Brahms agent model Object, gesture and agent 3D models

II. BrahmsVE/SimHab Example: planning meeting

II. BrahmsVE/SimHab Example: EVA prep

II. BrahmsVE/Personal Satellite Assistant Example: PSA aboard ISS with astronaut-agents NASA ISS PSA Design Simulation A robot assistant aboard the Space Station Human Centered Computing (HCC) project

II. BrahmsVE/PSA – web interface

II. BrahmsVE/PSA PSA in simulated US lab on ISS

II. BrahmsVE/PSA PSA instructed to search for tool, avoid obstacles

III. BrahmsVE/SimStation Online Online Instance of SimStation A rendition of SimStation project of Shirley, Cochrane et al, goals for online collaboration and document linking, early development phase

III. BrahmsVE/SimStation Online Web-based plugin (Adobe Atmosphere) with PHP/MySQL and Constructor parses XML component connection model to assemble station, components link to: online documents close-out photography video Notations multi user collaboration voice loops Future: construction/EVA viz

III. BrahmsVE/SimStation Online View of first prototype interfaces

III. BrahmsVE/SimStation Online Web architecture

Conclusions Work is in an early stage development but based on a decade of prior work Use of lightweight web-distributed environments a significant development in collaborative modeling and simulation Development is much more rapid (10% compiled binary components, rest script and database) and agent and 3D models can be developed in a fraction of the time. BrahmsVE is funded to product introduction in the Fall of 2005 Seeking proof of concept projects (contact )

Acknowledgements VDR: Stuart Gold et al, Contact Consortium BrahmsVE/SimHab: Maarten Sierhuis, William Clancey, et al, RIACS and Digital Space teams BrahmsVE/PSA: Charles Neveau, Maarten Sierhuis, William Clancey BrahmsVE/SimStation: Mark Shirley, Tom Cochrane et al. Find all project materials at:

III. BrahmsVE/SimStation Online demonstration