TIP-EXE: A software tool for studying the use and understanding of procedural documents

International audienceResearch problem: When dealing with procedural documents, individuals sometimes encounter comprehension problems due to poor information design. Researchers studying the use and understanding of procedural documents, as well as technical writers charged with the design of these documents, or usability specialists evaluating their quality, would all benefit from tools allowing them to collect real-time data concerning user behavior in user-centered studies. With this in mind, the generic software TIP-EXE (Technical Instructions Processing - Evaluations and eXperiments Editor) was designed to facilitate the carrying out of such studies. Research questions: Does document design, and specifically the matching or mismatching of the terms employed in a user manual and on the corresponding device, affect the cognitive processes involved in the comprehension of procedural instructions? Can we use a software tool like TIP-EXE to assess the impact of document design on the use and understanding of a procedural document? Literature Review: A review of the methods employed to study either the use of procedural documents or their cognitive processing, and to evaluate the quality of these documents, revealed the lack of tools for collecting relevant data. Methodology: The TIP-EXE software was used to set up and run a laboratory experiment designed to collect data concerning the effect of document design on the performance of a task. The experiment was conducted with 36 participants carrying out tasks involving the programming of a digital timer under one of three conditions: "matching instructions", "mismatching instructions", "mismatching instructions + picture". Based on a click-and-read method for blurred text, TIP-EXE was used to collect data on the time the users spent reading the instructions, as well as the time spent handling the timer. Results and Discussion: Results show that "matching instructions" (when the terms employed in the user manual match the terms on the device) enhance user performance. This instructional format results in less time spent consulting the instructions and handling the device, as well as fewer errors. This research shows that the TIP-EXE software can be used to study the way in which operating instructions are read, and the time spent consulting specific information contained therein, thereby revealing the effects of document design on user behavior

Mascaret: Pedagogical multi-agents system for virtual environment for training.

International audienceThis study concerns virtual environments for training in operational conditions. The principal developed idea is that these environments are heterogeneous and open multi-agent systems. The MASCARET model is proposed to organize the interactions between agents and to provide them reactive, cognitive and social abilities to simulate the physical and social environment. The physical environment represents, in a realistic way, the phenomena that learners and teachers have to take into account. The social environment is simulated by agents executing collaborative and adaptive tasks. These agents realize, in team, procedures that they have to adapt to the environment. The users participate to the training environment through their avatar. In this article, we explain how we integrated, in MASCARET, models necessary to the creation of Intelligent Tutoring System. We notably incorporate pedagogical strategies and pedagogical actions. We present pedagogical agents. To validate our model, the SÉCURÉVI application for fire-fighters training is developed

PEGASE: A generic and adaptable intelligent system for virtual reality learning environments

International audienceThe context of this research is the creation of human learning environments using virtual reality. We propose the integration of a generic and adaptable intelligent tutoring system (Pegase) into a virtual environment. The aim of this environment is to instruct the learner, and to assist the instructor. The proposed system is created using a multi-agent system. This system emits a set of knowledge (actions carried out by the learner, knowledge about the field, etc.) which Pegase uses to make informed decisions. Our study focuses on the representation of knowledge about the environment, and on the adaptable pedagogical agent providing instructive assistance

Agent Metamodel for virtual reality applications

10 pagesInternational audienceThe various existing agent models do not cover all the possible uses we consider for virtual reality applications. In this paper, we present an agent metamodel (Behave) based on an environment metamodel (Veha). This metamodel allows defining agents and organizing teams of agents in a virtual environment. The use of this metamodel is illustrated by the Gaspar application which simulates activities on an aircraft carrier

CHRYSAOR: an Agent-Based Intelligent Tutoring System in Virtual Environment

11 pagesInternational audienceThe various existing Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) models do not capitalize on all the possibilities permitted by the use of virtual reality. In this paper, we first establish the important characteristics of ITS (genericity, modularity, individualization, scenario edition, adaptativity). Subsequently we present our studies using an agent metamodel (Behave) based on an environment metamodel (Veha), in order to make a generic ITS. We focus on describing our agent model and its knowledge of the pedagogical situation and incorporate a pedagogical scenario model in our ITS. The use of this ITS is illustrated by an application of a virtual biomedical analyzer which enables to learn the technical procedures of the device

MASCARET: multiagent system for virtual environment for training.

International audienceThis study concerns virtual environments for training in operational conditions. The principal developed idea is that these environments are heterogeneous and open multi-agent systems. The MASCARET model is proposed to organize the interactions between agents and to provide them reactive, cognitive and social abilities to simulate the physical and social environment. The physical environment represents, in a realistic way, the phenomena that learners and teachers have to take into account. The social environment is simulated by agents executing collaborative and adaptive tasks. These agents realize, in team, procedures that they have to adapt to the environment. The users participate to the training environment through their avatar. In this article, we show that MASCARET allows the establishment of models necessary to the creation of Intelligent Tutoring System. We interest notably to its use in pedagogical aspects

Modeling of Errors Realized by a Human Learner in Virtual Environment for Training

This study focuses on the notion of erroneous actions realized by human learners in Virtual Environments for Training. Our principal objective is to develop an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) suggesting pedagogical assistances to the human teacher. For that, the ITS must obviously detect and classify erroneous actions produced by learners during the realization of procedural and collaborative work. Further, in order to better support human teacher and facilitate his comprehension, it is necessary to show the teacher why learner made an error. Addressing this issue, we firstly modeling the Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM). Then, we integrate the retrospective analysis mechanism of CREAM into our existing ITS, thus enable the system to indicate the path of probable cause-effect explaining reasons why errors have occurred

A Behavioral Perspective of Virtual Heritage Reconstruction

Our contribution focuses on the behavioral aspects that are currently used in the modeling of the virtual inhabitants of a reconstructed Greek- Roman colony in the framework of the TOMIS project. The project aims at promoting culture by the mean of the reconstruction of historical sites together with their virtual societies based on virtual and/or augmented reality technologies. Our efforts are oriented both on 3D modeling of virtual humans, animation of the virtual humans on every-day human activities and, most important, on the spicing these activities with human emotions. To this end, we iterate the most common agent-based architectures used to produce credible behavior of the virtual agents (humans or animals) in situations inspired from the real world, and emphasize their direct applicability both in humans and animal animations in order to obtain complex behavior based on atomic activities. Finally, the paper presents the technological issues related to the used motion capture technology, as source of high-definition human atomic actions, that participates in complex action plans for virtual agents activities

Apprentissage de procédures en environnements virtuels

Mes travaux de recherche s'inscrivent dans le domaine de l'ingénierie des connaissances et de la réalité virtuelle, les environnements virtuels d'apprentissage humain (EVAH) en constituant le cadre applicatif. Depuis ma thèse, mes activités de recherche portent sur la modélisation des connaissances pour les agents autonomes en environnement virtuel. L'objectif est de concevoir des modèles qui permettent l'explicitation des connaissances nécessaires à l'exécution des comportements de ces agents. Ces travaux se placent dans le contexte de la simulation des activités humaines se déroulant en environnement réaliste. Plus précisément, les activités considérées sont les tâches procédurales et collaboratives. Les modèles que je propose permettent d'une part la simulation de ces activités humaines dans un environnement virtuel et permettent d'autre part, à des utilisateurs humains de « prendre la place » des agents en temps réel dans un but de simulation ou de formation. Un tel environnement peut être considéré comme un système complexe du fait du nombre et de l'hétérogénéité des agents qui le peuplent, du fait de leurs nombreuses interactions et de l'intégration de l'humain dans le système. Notre cadre applicatif est l'apprentissage humain. Les connaissances explicitées décrivent alors le modèle « métier » à transmettre mais également les connaissances spécifiques à la didactique ou à la pédagogie qui servent aux comportements d'agents autonomes jouant les rôles du formateur. J'ai proposé mascaret, un ensemble de modèles permettant l'explicitation des connaissances pour les agents peuplant un environnement virtuel. Ces connaissances portent sur la structure et la dynamique de l'environnement ainsi que sur les procédures que peuvent réaliser des équipes de personnels dans cet environnement. Le langage utilisé pour décrire la connaissance métier est uml ; mascaret peut alors être considéré comme un profil spécifique à la conception d'environnement virtuel. Ainsi, un modèle métier écrit à l'aide de mascaret est une instance du méta-modèle mascaret et est donc une donnée manipulable en temps réel dans la simulation. L'avantage d'uml dans ce cadre est qu'il s'agit d'un langage normalisé et graphique ce qui le rend utilisable par des experts d'un métier spécifique mais non expert de la conception informatique. De plus, uml est un langage unifié dans le sens où le même langage, et donc le même outil, permet de décrire l'aspect statique et dynamique du système abordé. L'explicitation de la connaissance grâce à mascaret permet de prototyper et simuler un système complexe. gaspar est un exemple d'application de type serious game que nous avons conçue pour le compte de DCNS. L'intérêt de mascaret dans cette application est d'une part de pouvoir tester rapidement de nouvelles configurations (géométrie du porte-avions, positions des avions, nouvelles procédures) mais également de pouvoir générer automatiquement un bilan du résultat de la simulation (durée d'une procédure, temps d'occupation d'une ressource...). La deuxième utilisation de mascaret que nous avons démontrée est la conception de situations d'apprentissage. Nous proposons pegase qui s'appuie sur les connaissances métier explicites de la simulation pour proposer des assistances pédagogiques adaptées. De même poseidon, permet au formateur de décrire l'exercice et les actions qui devrons y être menées en s'appuyant sur les connaissances métier explicites. Le fait d'utiliser mascaret permet à ces deux modèles d'être complètement indépendants des modèles métier spécifiques

Les Systèmes Multi-Agents pour les Environnements Virtuels de Formation (Application à la sécurité civile)

Nos travaux concernent les environnements virtuels de formation pour l'apprentissage en situation opérationnelle. Nus soutenons la thèse que ces environnements sont des sytsèmes multi-agents hétérogènes et ouverts. Nous proposons le modèle MASCARET pour structurer les interactions entre les agents et pour fournir aux agents les capacités réactives, cognitives et sociales leur permettant de simuler l'environnement physique et social composant l'univers virtuel de formation. L'environnement physique simule de manière réaliste les phénomènes que les apprenants et les formateurs doivent prendre en compte. L'environnement social est simulé par des agents réalisant un travail collaboratif et adaptatif; ils effectuent, en équipe, des procédures qu'ils doivent adapter à l'environnement. Les utilisateurs participent à l'environnement de formation via leur avatar. Pour valider notre modèle, nous avons développé l'application SécuRéVi destinée à la formation des officiers sapeurs-pompiers.This study concerns virtual environments for training in operationnal conditions. The principal developed idea is that these environments are heterogeneous and open multiagent systems. The MASCARET model is proposed to organize the interactions between the agents and to give them reactives, cognitives ans socials abilities to simulate the physical and social environment. The physical environment represent, in a realistic way, the phenomena that the learners and the teachers have to take into account. The social environment is simulated by agents executing collaborative and adaptative tasks. They realize, in team, the procedures that they have to adapt to the environment. The users participate to the training environment throught their avatar. To validate our model, the SecuRevi application for fire-fighters training is developed.BREST-BU Droit-Sciences-Sports (290192103) / SudocSudocFranceF