Affiliations: University of Fortaleza, Master's Program
in Applied Informatics, Av. Washington Soares 1521, Edson Queiroz, Fortaleza,
CE, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract: This article describes the ExpertCop tutorial system. ExpertCop is a
geosimulator of criminal dynamics in urban environments that aims to train
police officers in the activity of preventive policing allocation. ExpertCop
intends to i) help students comprehend the task of resources allocation and
identify the variables involved; ii) induce students to reflect about their
actions related to resources allocation; and iii) help students understand the
relation between preventive policing and crime. In ExpertCop, the students
(police officers) configure and allocate an available police force according to
a selected geographic region, and then follow the simulation process. The
students interpret the results with the aid of an intelligent tutor, the
Pedagogical Agent, by observing how crime behaves in the presence of the
allocated preventive policing. The interaction between domain agents
representing social entities such as criminals and police teams allocated by
the students drives the simulation. Assisting the user, the Pedagogical Agent
aims to define interaction strategies between the student and the geosimulator
in order to make simulated phenomena better understood. The innovative
character of the work is in the strategy adopted by the Pedagogical Agent in
order to assist the user in understanding the simulated model. It seeks to
explain the model at the macro-level (global or emergent behavior) and
micro-level (behavior of the agents individually). The evaluation of the system
in training held with students of the domain has shown that the system attains
its intended pedagogical goals.
Keywords: Intelligent tutoring systems, geosimulation, multiagent simulation, explanation, law enforcement