how to set mecanim parameters for an ai?

Guys n gals, i have run into a bit of a problem, i have a nav mesh ai, designed to patrol, search and engage players when detected. The character mesh is a child of the nav agent and uses no root motion. so in essense all the character model does is "fake" walking running etc, while the nav agent does all the actual moving. So my problem is this, how do i set up floats to read the game obects transform in the same way that an input based system for a character? i need to track the game objects speed, direction and rotation to effcetivly rerepresent walking running etc. i am currenly using delta positions to manage my animator but i find this rather chunky and unresponsive looking as i have to multiply every delta value just to make a value high enough for mecanim to regester. any ideas? i though this would be less of a problem than its turned out to be.