Bots

Bots, short form of robots, are similar to non-playing characters in games. They are programmed in some way to act or respond and are not driven by a person. They are driven by a script or external database of commands. They may be simple or complex. They may be made of prims or created using an avatar as the base for operation.

There remains the question of the "uncanny valley" and whether people will welcome bots as a useful addition to teaching or find them repulsive.

Bots in Second Life
The LSL Wiki: http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/ wakka.php?wakka= TutorialRobotics

A Robot Simulation in Second Life: https://cove.purkeypile.com/ trac/browser/Trunk/ClassDocs/ CS835/Classmates-Robotics_ Papers/Nigel_Thompson-CS835- Robotics-Project.pdf?format= raw

Virtual Chinese Island by Scott Grant at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia uses bots extensively including waiters in the restaurant.

Types of bots
AIML pandora bot PikkuBot Prim bots are more stable. Avatar based bots get logged out and laggy sometimes.

Resources
Delicious Stack by Lindy Orwin Lindy Orwin's Learning in Virtual Worlds wiki bots page Automated avatars in Second Life video Second Life and speech recognition chatbots for language learning video Blog post about better NPCs coming in Second Life. Companies working on virtual intelligent characters. Lyr Lobo presentation on Artificial Intelligence and Language Bots A. Bogdanovych, J. A. Rodriguez-Aguilar ,S. Simoff A. Cohen, "Authentic Interactive Reenactment Of Cultural Heritage", Applied Artificial Intelligence, Vol 24, No 6, pp617-647 AIML, which is the programming language/program that provides the chat capability of bots, a free site on which you can make and host your own chat bot engine/files is Pandorabots at the following URL - [] AIML can be used on web and inworld. Quasimoto Merlin Bot Patient bot video
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Bots in OpenSim
NPCs coming to OpenSim Bot Examples Bot information at http://opensimulator.org/wiki/OSSLNPC
 * Place a script in an object, that script sends all info to the NPC wherever it walks on one region. It can not cross regions yet (Feb 2012). It can walk, fly and land.
 * If you want to creat different NPC's you can copy appearances from existing avatar using the script on this page - http://opensimulator.org/wiki/OsNpcCreate
 * The script creates a notecard which you have to copy to your inventory and rename. then you can use that 'look' for one of your NPC's.
 * It works on OS 0.7.2 but the new 0.7.3 rc1 will have some more functionallity like sitting, stand up, and playing animation as can be seen on the first page link above.
 * Example from 3DLES of a tour guide bot - Video

Possible roles for bots

 * A tour-guide at a historical site, a museum, technical model, display or gallery.
 * A waiter or receptionist.
 * An unhappy customer coming to your Customer Service Desk.
 * Participants around the table during a business meeting.
 * An interviewer.
 * An interviewee.
 * A medical patient.
 * A student or trainee you are attempting to “teach”.
 * A witness of an accident, crime or event to interview for a news article.
 * Characters in a story to inspire a creative writing project.
 * A lost child or senior citizen.
 * An accident victim.
 * A technician.