A Flexible Representation of Controllers for Physically-based Animation of Virtual Humans

In this paper, we propose a representation of controllers that uses high-level sensors and possesses a general and intuitive structure that offers several types of parameters, which can be modified by the animator or automatically. This structure, with the feedback signals provided by its sensors, allows several state machines to act simultaneously on the model, or in a subset of its actuators. The sensors can be optimized, facilitating their definition and use. The representation also permits the animator to define procedures with more general instructions in order to be automatically executed by the controller during the dynamics simulation.