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Modeling Autobiographical Memory for Believable Agents

AAAI Conferences

We present a multi-layer hierarchical connectionist network model for simulating human autobiographical memory in believable agents. Grounded in psychological theory, this model improves on previous attempts to model agentsโ€™ event knowledge by providing a more dynamic and non-deterministic representation of autobiographical memories. From this model, a Java-based proof-of-concept prototype system was created for use as an enabling technology in video games. This prototype was leveraged in the creation of a Minecraft modification (mod) implementation of the model that is able to demonstrate context-dependent recall and the effects of recency on memory recall. Wider implications of the model in agent and game design are discussed.


Viewpoints AI: Demonstration

AAAI Conferences

This article describes a technical approach to movement-based interactions between a human interactor and an intelligent agent based on the theatrical Viewpoints movement framework. The Viewpoints AI system features procedural gesture interpretation using shallow semantics and deep aesthetics analysis from the Viewpoints framework. The installation creates a liminal virtual / real space for the human and AI to interact by the use of digital projection for the AI visualization and shadow play to represent the human. Observations from a recent public demonstration of the system and future directions of work are also discussed.


Modeling Unit Classes as Agents in Real-Time Strategy Games

AAAI Conferences

We present CLASS QL , a multi-agent model for playing real-time strategy games, where learning and control of our own teamโ€™s units is decentralized; each agent uses its own reinforcement learning process to learn and control units of the same class. Coordination between these agents occurs as a result of a common reward function shared by all agents and synergistic relations in a carefully crafted state and action model for each class. We present results of CLASS QL against the built-in AI in a variety of maps using the Wargus real-time strategy game.


Decision Making Styles as Deviation from Rational Action: A Super Mario Case Study

AAAI Conferences

In this paper we describe a method of modeling play styles as deviations from approximations of game theoretically rational actions. These deviations are interpreted as containing information about player skill and player decision making style. We hypothesize that this information is useful for differentiating between players and for understanding why human player behavior is attributed intentionality which we argue is a prerequisite for believability. To investigate these hypotheses we describe an experiment comparing 400 games in the Mario AI Benchmark testbed, played by humans, with equivalent games played by an approximately game theoretically rationally playing AI agent. The player actionsโ€™ deviations from the rational agentโ€™s actions are subjected to feature extraction, and the resulting features are used to cluster play sessions into expressions of different play styles. We discuss how these styles differ, and how believable agent behavior might be approached by using these styles as an outset for a planning agent. Finally, we discuss the implications of making assumptions about rational game play and the problematic aspects of inferring player intentions from behavior.


Distance-Based Construction Behaviors for Dynamic Grid-Based Worlds

AAAI Conferences

This paper proposes a method for the development of AI for autonomous agents in game worlds modeled by fixed regular grids. ย This approach uses context behaviors driven by distance maps to support multiple agents in a dynamic environment. ย This paper introduces the notion of hierarchical distance maps which allow for higher-level goals to be easily specified by designers. ย We also discuss potential applications of our approach in the design and development of agents and behaviors in the block world genre.


An Online Mechanism for Multi-Unit Demand and its Application to Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Charging

Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research

We develop an online mechanism for the allocation of an expiring resource to a dynamic agent population. Each agent has a non-increasing marginal valuation function for the resource, and an upper limit on the number of units that can be allocated in any period. We propose two versions on a truthful allocation mechanism. Each modifies the decisions of a greedy online assignment algorithm by sometimes cancelling an allocation of resources. One version makes this modification immediately upon an allocation decision while a second waits until the point at which an agent departs the market. Adopting a prior-free framework, we show that the second approach has better worst-case allocative efficiency and is more scalable. On the other hand, the first approach (with immediate cancellation) may be easier in practice because it does not need to reclaim units previously allocated. We consider an application to recharging plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Using data from a real-world trial of PHEVs in the UK, we demonstrate higher system performance than a fixed price system, performance comparable with a standard, but non-truthful scheduling heuristic, and the ability to support 50% more vehicles at the same fuel cost than a simple randomized policy.



Reports of the 2013 AAAI Spring Symposium Series

AI Magazine

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence was pleased to present the AAAI 2013 Spring Symposium Series, held Monday through Wednesday, March 25-27, 2013. The titles of the eight symposia were Analyzing Microtext, Creativity and (Early) Cognitive Development, Data Driven Wellness: From Self-Tracking to Behavior Change, Designing Intelligent Robots: Reintegrating AI II, Lifelong Machine Learning, Shikakeology: Designing Triggers for Behavior Change, Trust and Autonomous Systems, and Weakly Supervised Learning from Multimedia. This report contains summaries of the symposia, written, in most cases, by the cochairs of the symposium.


Empowerment -- an Introduction

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

This book chapter is an introduction to and an overview of the information-theoretic, task independent utility function "Empowerment", which is defined as the channel capacity between an agent's actions and an agent's sensors. It quantifies how much influence and control an agent has over the world it can perceive. This book chapter discusses the general idea behind empowerment as an intrinsic motivation and showcases several previous applications of empowerment to demonstrate how empowerment can be applied to different sensor-motor configuration, and how the same formalism can lead to different observed behaviors. Furthermore, we also present a fast approximation for empowerment in the continuous domain.


Double four-bar crank-slider mechanism dynamic balancing by meta-heuristic algorithms

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

In this paper, a new method for dynamic balancing of double four-bar crank slider mechanism by meta- heuristic-based optimization algorithms is proposed. For this purpose, a proper objective function which is necessary for balancing of this mechanism and corresponding constraints has been obtained by dynamic modeling of the mechanism. Then PSO, ABC, BGA and HGAPSO algorithms have been applied for minimizing the defined cost function in optimization step. The optimization results have been studied completely by extracting the cost function, fitness, convergence speed and runtime values of applied algorithms. It has been shown that PSO and ABC are more efficient than BGA and HGAPSO in terms of convergence speed and result quality. Also, a laboratory scale experimental doublefour-bar crank-slider mechanism was provided for validating the proposed balancing method practically.