Exploring robust locomotion control on dynamically evolving grounds
Motivations and context The design of motion controllers for physically based virtual creatures is a key task for many applications. They can be used to enhance the realism of 3D films or to create plausible reactive characters for video games. In a more scientific basis, controlled characters can be used for computing visual simulations from priors. More specifically, the present work is motivated by a collaboration between our Computer Graphics group and a team of Prehistorians studying the behaviour of the early humans who lived in the Tautavel valley (south of France) 350 000 years ago. This collaboration raises many interesting questions such as: Could we infer locomotion styles for these early humans from those of modern humans and the well studied differences of morphology? How did the early humans interact with the natural environment surrounding them (including rocks, grass, sliding gravels, mud, rivers to be crossed) The long term goal being to provide an immersive simulation tool where prehistorians would get visual feedback from their expressed knowledge and hypotheses on early human behaviour, such as being able to follow a prehistoric man wandering about in a typical day.