is there a "right" language for coding AI demos?

[Anonymous]

Hey,

I’m sure this topic comes up a lot in relation to different areas but, i’m wanted to ask a more specific question, related to AI.

I’m going to be working on a simplified form of adaptive path finding in a dynamic environment. I only have 3 and a bit weeks but i plan to use this as a “stepping stone” (if you’ll forgive the choice of words) for my masters dissertation.

I’d really like to be able to use this mini project as part of my code “portfolio” for when i start job hunting after graduation next year.

So I was just wondering when it comes to an area like AI how much does the programming language it’s implemented in matter?

At the moment i’m thinking i’ll do it all in Java mostly because (from my own experience, but please let me know otherwise!) it’s much easier to get the visual side of things going than in C++.

I’m not looking to create fancy visuals, the game agent will simply be a little red triangle in a 2d grid world with obstacles as white rectangles.

I also have a lot more experience in Java programming than C++.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions :)

[Anonymous]

Use the language you know best. You are trying to show people what you can do not impress them with stuff you don’t understand.

[Anonymous]

any language is fine. i didnt a path find app before in java and swing.

http://student.cs.ucc.ie/~pb2 under the work section.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies.

Use the language you know best. You are trying to show people what you can do not impress them with stuff you don’t understand.[/quote:0a548088a2]

And that is a very good point!

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Anthony,

A.I. Scripting and Data-Driven Frameworks are definitely on the rise. The “Big 3” scripting languages for A.I. are Lua, Python and Ruby.

Lua tends to be more C-like in syntax, and therefore is better suited to consoles, however creating C++ scripted classes is pretty straight forward.

Python is also well received.

Ruby. Now this is the dark-horse. It has a steep learning curve, as most the documentation and tutorials are in japanese, however this is the most OO C++ scripting language I’ve seen yet. Ruby tends to be used by many Eastern RPG-developers, and is definitely worth looking into, if RPG’s are what you hope to get into.

If you can describe further what your demo app is about, I could provide a better degree of input.

B.

[Anonymous]

My course is actually purely an A.I. course (Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems) so i’m not using any scripting. I could describe my project as “Evolving an path-finding agent in a dynamic 2d environment”.

I finally got feedback on my project proposal and my lecturer gave it the thumbs up so i presume that’s a sign that it’s doable.

Basically, the program will work by generating a population of 50 – 100 agents with randomly weighted feed-forward neural networks. The inputs to their networks will be the contents of the 4 squares surrounding them and the output will be the next direction to move in.

Given a period of time X – deciding on that will require a bit of experimentation to find a suitable trial period – the agents will be allowed to travel around in the 2d environment (basically a grid world). And fitness will based on the one who gets closest to the target (the Exit) in the least amount of moves.

The weights of the networks will be controlled using a genetic algorithm that will breed the weights of the fitter agents.

The obstacles to avoid will be added / removed during a simulation run, at this point i can’t say at what frequency as i haven’t worked out how long a simulation will need to run.

I know there are some potential bugs in my idea but the advantage of doing a “sciencey” research paper is that i trick around to get something that works and then say that was what my original intention was to achieve
:lol:

The hardest part of coming up with a proposal was cutting back on being too ambitious, so we were required to come up with a basic first step to achieve (if all else failed) and mine is to evolve an agent that will find the target (exit) in a 2nd static world.

I’m slowly (hard to find time on a Masters for anything but work) working my way through Mat Buckland’s “Programming Game AI by Example” book – haven’t gotten as far as the Lua scripting section though, still trying to get familiar with the soccer game in Chapter 4.

If this project works out well, i hope to do something more advanced for my dissertation in the summer, most likely in 3D and in a physics simulator like ODE (which we use for robotics simulations here, most for passive walking dynamics).

[Anonymous]

Project sounds nice, Neural Nets with GA should be interesting. Are you using libraries or writing it all yourself? There are plenty of libraries out there for both as you probably know. Have been using Buckland’s book right enough, tis a decent book for GA especially, luckily I had Derek Bridge in UCC for AI he is an amazing lecturer, Abertay’s AI is unbelievably bad in comparison! Programmed a little spaceship lander program using Fuzzy Logic and GA for a assessment(similar Buckland’s one) and found Fuzzy Logic to be superior than GA for this task. The biggest problem with GA imo was that it can never evolve a solution and is a pain in the ass to debug from generation to generation.
Anyway best of luck with the project,where is the course?Assume its not a games AI course??

[Anonymous]

I’ve heard from peter_b that Derek Bridge is a fantastic lecturer alright.

Project sounds nice, Neural Nets with GA should be interesting. Are you using libraries or writing it all yourself? There are plenty of libraries out there for both as you probably know[/quote:3a44769469]

I’ll be writing it all myself, the project is for my Artificial Life module and GAs and ANNs were topics we covered (fuzzy logic wasn’t unfortunlately) so in order to write my report on the project it’s easier to have coded them – well easier because i need to fill up 3500 words of a report! :lol:

Have been using Buckland’s book right enough, tis a decent book for GA especially[/quote:3a44769469]

I know the book you’re talking about, “AI Techniques for Game Programming” i think it is. The one i’m trying to get through covers Game AI but not GAs etc…or at least not as far as i’ve read anyhow! :)

Anyway best of luck with the project,where is the course?Assume its not a games AI course??[/quote:3a44769469]

Thanks! I’m in the University Of Sussex doing an MSc in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems (pretty much anti-GOFAI basically). It’s a very interesting course but there’s not as much hands-on stuff as I thought there would be, we had one robotics lab and a few programming assignments during the term but nothing too serious (i think i’m too much of an engineer!)

Here are links to the overall blurb:

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/1-3-2-2-7-1.html

and the syllabus:
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/1-3-2-2-7-1-2.html

[Anonymous]

This may be of some use to you!

[Anonymous]

Hey PPL,

Am a proper noob when it comes to programming. I am interesting in programming AI so who can point me to the right directions for tutorials? I hate most language apart from html and c++ and i wana get into c#. Nothing to complicated am only in 6th year.

[Anonymous]

Cheers MrStripe!

Sorry i didn’t see the link in your post for a few days and initially thought it was just some random spam with the text “This may be of some use to you!”

Ooops! :oops:

[Anonymous]

Ola,

check out http://www.ai-junkie.com for some tutorials on my “classic” AI like Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms. All in C++ too.

Also, http://www.gameai.com is full of useful links to various places.

[Author]

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