Social intelligence has a huge impact on the determination of human behaviour in the society. The use of norms can contribute to advances in this social intelligence by the provision of appropriate behaviour based upon the understanding of social situations. Hence, the domain of virtual characters research has given much attention to take advantage of these characteristics of norms particularly in engineering human-like behaviour. However, a lack of capability in reasoning about norms as well as a lack of norm autonomy in virtual characters have significantly diminished the naturalism in virtual characters behaviour. Within this context, a hybrid approach incorporating social and individual reasoning inspired by socio-cognitive theory is taken into account in this thesis. To this end, we propose DNA 3 , Distributed Norm Aware Agent Architecture, established through the integration of (i) the institution, a normative framework performing the social reasoning, (ii) N-Jason, a (BDI-type) cognitive agent carrying out run-time norm-aware deliberation and (iii) a virtual character in charge of perception and realisation of actions. The institution takes responsibility of (i) analysis of state of external worlds by recording a sequence of event occurrences observed by multiple virtual agents, (ii) reasoning about situationally appropriate behaviour with an assistance from Answer Set Programming (ASP) solver depending upon the social context virtual characters encounter and (iii) in turn detachment of a new set of norms, more precisely normative consequences of specific actions, to virtual characters. This contributes to the enhancement in the flexibility in specifying and reasoning about social norms subject to changes of social situations. Those detached norms are involved in the reasoning process of in- dividual virtual characters. In here, a norm-aware BDI-type agent, N-Jason, performs a practical reasoning to select a plan to execute between norms and goals. Basically, N-Jason offers a generic norm execution mechanism on top of norm aware deliberation to contribute to the exploitation of run-time norm compliance. The selection of agent behaviour is achieved in the norm-aware deliberation process by intention scheduling with deadlines and priorities. This improves the rationality in the choice of behaviour with taking into account the preference on norms and goals in agent mind by evaluation of the importance and imminence between feasible plans triggered by both norms and goals. The design and simulation of politeness is presented as an evaluation of DNA 3 with respect to the effectiveness and adequacy in modelling virtual characters behaviour. The emphasis in here lies on the capability that is able to exhibit different types of appropriate polite behaviour in response to frequent changes in social situations. This is mainly driven by two main activities: prediction of other participants’ intention is carried out by norm-aware virtual characters whilst the understanding of context and reasoning about relevant social behaviour is performed in normative frameworks. For this purpose, three case studies are provided in this thesis: (i) politeness in navigation of individuals, (ii) politeness in the formation and navigation of groups during a guided tour, and(iii) evacuation model as a politeness in the emergency situation. The evaluation is conducted by measuring: (i) the appropriateness of in response to scenarios (e.g.a number of avoiding collisions) and (ii) the reliability of agent decision making (e.g. a response time in relation to norms with the highest priority and the most urgent).

Neste trabalho apresentamos um modelo para ambientes inteligentes baseado em organizações de agentes, onde interações entre entidades são associadas a espaços físicos, pessoas carregam dispositivos e se movimentam entre diferentes espaços físicos e cada espaço físico contém definições de interações (comportamentos definidos por normas) próprias do seu contexto. São definidos três componentes deste modelo: (1) modelo conceitual, (2) linguagem de especificação e (3) ambiente de execução. A separação do modelo nestes três componentes traz como principais conseqüências: (1) a ativação de um ambiente inteligente é feita através de um mecanismo de alto nível, (2) a especificação de um ambiente inteligente é independente do domínio de aplicação e (3) as especificações podem ser executadas em mecanismos diferentes de execução. / We introduce a conceptual model for smart environments based on agent organizations where interactions between entities are associated with physical spaces, people (carrying mobile devices) move between different physical spaces and these physical spaces contain definitions of interactions (behaviors defined by norms) related to each context. This model defines three components: (1) conceptual model, (2) language specification, and (3) execution environment. The separation in these three components brings as main consequences: (1) activation of a smart environment is performed through a high-level mechanism, (2) specification of a smart environment is independent of the application domain, and (3) specifications can be performed on different mechanisms of execution.

Neste trabalho apresentamos um modelo para ambientes inteligentes baseado em organizações de agentes, onde interações entre entidades são associadas a espaços físicos, pessoas carregam dispositivos e se movimentam entre diferentes espaços físicos e cada espaço físico contém definições de interações (comportamentos definidos por normas) próprias do seu contexto. São definidos três componentes deste modelo: (1) modelo conceitual, (2) linguagem de especificação e (3) ambiente de execução. A separação do modelo nestes três componentes traz como principais conseqüências: (1) a ativação de um ambiente inteligente é feita através de um mecanismo de alto nível, (2) a especificação de um ambiente inteligente é independente do domínio de aplicação e (3) as especificações podem ser executadas em mecanismos diferentes de execução. / We introduce a conceptual model for smart environments based on agent organizations where interactions between entities are associated with physical spaces, people (carrying mobile devices) move between different physical spaces and these physical spaces contain definitions of interactions (behaviors defined by norms) related to each context. This model defines three components: (1) conceptual model, (2) language specification, and (3) execution environment. The separation in these three components brings as main consequences: (1) activation of a smart environment is performed through a high-level mechanism, (2) specification of a smart environment is independent of the application domain, and (3) specifications can be performed on different mechanisms of execution.

Nous abordons dans cette thèse le problème de la conception d’un système informatique de soutien évaluatif, pour soutenir et évaluer en temps réel l’activité collaborative dans le cas particulier "d'une activité régie par des process issus d'organisations différentes". Nous définissons un process comme un ensemble de règles, de politiques, de plans, de normes ayant pour vocation de guider et de servir de référence à la réalisation d’une activité collaborative. Nous positionnons notre recherche dans le cadre applicatif de l’entrainement à la gestion de crise, et dans le cadre technologique de l’interaction tangible.Pour mettre en place un soutien évaluatif flexible et intelligible, nous proposons un système socio-technique capable d’apporter aux acteurs une conscience organisationnelle partagée et distribuée.Dans ce cadre, trois verrous essentiels sont considérés : (1) représentation et gestion de contextes liés à l’activité soutenue et aux interactions entre acteurs, (2) représentation et gestion des différents process liés à l’activité soutenue et à l’interaction, et (3) articulation entre l'activité soutenue et l'interaction.Pour répondre à ces verrous, nous proposons le système OrA s’appuyant sur trois groupes de principes relatif à l'activité soutenue et à l’interaction : modularité et représentation des process et contextes, gestion autonome et faiblement couplée des process et des éléments de contexte, coordination flexible entre ces mécanismes de gestion de process et de contextes.Ces principes sont mis en oeuvre au sein d’un système informatique s’appuyant sur les modèles des collecticiels, et en particulier CLOVER, des modèles de traces, des systèmes multi-agents normatifs.Ce système est évalué en démontrant la possibilité de modéliser les process d’un cas pratique d’exercice de gestion de crise, puis en proposant une utilisation en situation d’un exercice réel d’entrainement à la gestion de crise. / We discuss in this thesis about designing an computer system for an evaluative support , to support and evaluate in real-time the collaborative activity in the particular case of "an activity governed by processes from different organizations". We define a process as a set of rules, policies, plans, standards which aim to guide and be a reference for the realization of a collaborative activity. Our research is applied to training in crisis management, and situated in the technological context of tangible interaction.To implement a flexible and comprehensible evaluative support, we propose a socio-technical systemfor bringing the actors shared and distributed organizational consciousness.In this context, three key issues are considered: (1) representation and management of the contexts associated with the sustained activity and the interactions between the involved stakeholders, (2) representation and management of various processes associated with the sustained activity and the interaction and (3) the articulation between the sustained activity and the interaction.To answer these issues, we offer the OrA system based on three groups of principles, both about sutained activiy and interaction : modularity and representation of processes and contexts, autonomous management and loosely coupled processes and contextual elements, flexible coordination between these process and context management mechanisms.These principles are implemented in a computer system based on the model of groupware, especially CLOVER, a traces models, and normative multi-agent systems.This system is evaluated by demonstrating the ability to model the process of a practical case of crisis management exercise, and by providing a use situation of a real exercise training in crisis management.