A Model for Coordinating Interacting Agents

ID
TR-93-53
Authors
Paul Lalonde, Robert Walker, Jason Harrison and David Forsey
Publishing date
October 30, 1993
Length
8 pages
Abstract

SPAM (Simulated Platform for Animating Motion) is a simulation software system designed to address synchronization issues pertaining to both animation and simulation. SPAM provides application programs with the manipulation, configuration, and synchronization tools needed when simulations are combined to create animations. It is designed to be used as the glue between applications that supply lists of the parameters to animate and the callback procedures to invoke when a user wishes to modify the parameters directly. SPAM does not impose a particular model of simulation, accommodating keyframing, physical simulation, or a variety of other models, providing they can be abstracted into a set of externally modifiable values.

In SPAM we recognize that the important part of simulation is not the state of the system at each time step, but rather the change in states between steps. Thus SPAM uses an interval representation of time, explicitly representing the intervals over which change occurs.

In a complex animation or simulation, multiple actions will access the same resource at the same time. SPAM defines a strategy for recognizing such conflicts that increases the use and re-use of sequences.