Contents

• List of Figures
• Introduction
  • Motivation
  • Challenges
    • Conventional Animation Techniques
      • Significant Animator Intervention is Required
      • Characters Lack Autonomy
      • Low-Level Motion Specification is Burdensome
      • Physical Realism is Not Guaranteed
  • Methodology: Artificial Life for Computer Animation
    • Criteria and Goals
    • Artificial Animals
    • From Physics to Realistic Locomotion
      • Physics-Based Modeling
      • Simulated Physical Body
      • Simulated Physical Environment
      • Motor Control
    • Realistic Perception
    • Realistic Behavior
      • Environment, External Stimuli and Internal State
      • Action Selection
      • Behavioral Animation
    • Fidelity and Efficiency
  • Contributions and Results
    • Primary Contributions
    • Auxiliary Technical Contributions
  • Thesis Overview
• Background
  • Physics-Based Modeling
    • Constraint-based Approach
    • Motion Synthesis Approach
      • Hand-Crafted Controllers
      • Optimization-Based Controller Synthesis
  • Behavioral Animation
    • Perception Modeling
    • Control of Behavior
  • The Modeling of Action Selection
    • Defining Action
    • Goals and Means
    • Previous Work
    • Task-level Motion Planning
  • Summary
• Functional Anatomy of an Artificial Fish
  • Motor System
  • Perception System
  • Behavior System
• Biomechanical Fish Model and Locomotion
  • Discrete Physics-Based Models
  • Structure of the Dynamic Fish Model
  • Mechanics
    • Viscoelastic Units
      • Newtonian equations of motion
      • Biomechanical Properties
  • Muscles and Hydrodynamics
  • Numerical Solution
    • System Matrix Assembling and the Skyline Storage Scheme
    • Algorithm Outline and Discussion
  • Motor Controllers
    • Muscle Motor Controllers
    • Pectoral Fin Motor Controllers
• Modeling the Form and Appearance of Fishes
  • Constructing 3D Geometric Fish Models
  • Obtaining Texture Coordinates
    • Deformable Mesh
  • Texture-Mapped Models
  • Coupling the Dynamic and Display Models
  • Visualization of the Pectoral Motions
• Perception Modeling
  • Perception Modeling for Animation
  • Overview of the Artificial Fish's Perception System
  • Vision Sensor Modeling
    • Perceptual Range
    • Occlusion
    • Functionality
  • Computing Visibility
    • Visibility of a Point
      • Occlusion Test
    • Visibility of Another Fish
    • Visibility of a Cylinder
    • Visibility of Seaweeds
    • Discussion
  • The Focusser
    • Focus of Attention in Animals
    • Design of the Focusser
      • Obtaining the Focus
      • Motor Preferences
    • Summary
  • From Perception to Behavior
    • An Example: Collision Detection
      • Detecting Danger of Collision with Cylindrical Obstacles
      • Detecting Danger of Collision with Other Fish
  • Synthetic Vision Models
• The Behavior System
  • Effective Action Selection Mechanisms
  • Behavior Control and Ethology
    • The Intention Level
    • The Action Level
    • Summary
  • Habits
  • Mental State
    • Opportunism
    • Satiation of a Desire
  • Intention Generator
    • Why Hierarchy?
      • Ethological Background
      • Implementation Advantages
  • Intention-Guided Perception: Control of the Focusser
  • Persistence in Behavior
    • Behavior Memory
    • Inhibitory Gain and Fatigue
    • Persistence in Targeting
  • Behavior Routines
    • Primitive Behavior: Avoiding Potential Collisions
    • Primitive Behavior: Moving Target Pursuit
  • Artificial Fish Types
    • Predators
      • Ingestion
    • Prey
    • Pacifists
  • Discussion
    • Analysis
      • Priority of Different Behaviors
      • Persistence in Behavior
      • Compromised Actions
      • Opportunism
      • Real-Valued Sensory Readings
    • Summary
• Modeling the Marine Environment
  • Water Current
  • Seaweeds and Plankton
• The Graphical User Interface
  • Initialization Panels
  • Manipulation Panels
    • Experimenting with the Physics
    • Influencing a Fish's Behavior
  • Control Panels
  • Discussion
• Animation Results
  • ``Go Fish!''
  • ``The Undersea World of Jack Cousto''
  • Animation Short: Preying Behavior
  • Animation Short: Schooling Behavior
  • Animation Short: Mating Behavior
• Conclusion and Future Work
  • Conclusion
  • Additional Impact in Animation and Artificial Life
  • Impact in Computer Vision and Robotics
  • Potential Applications in Ethology
  • Other Artificial Animals
  • Future Research Directions
    • Animation
      • Physics-based Motor Control
      • Better Hydrodynamics and a Greater Variety of Marine Animals
      • More Elaborate Perception Model
      • Modeling Emotion for Behavior Control
      • Higher Directability
    • Artificial Life
• Deformable Contour Models
• Visualization of the Pectoral Motions
  • Animating the Pectoral Flapping Motion
  • Animating the Pectoral Oaring Motion
• Prior Action Selection Mechanisms
  • Behavior Choice Network
  • Free-Flow Hierarchy
• References
• Color Images
• About this document ...

Xiaoyuan Tu

January 1996