An Organic Computing Testbed · games that have been used as scientific testbeds, such as chess, go...
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Find us online [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] An Organic Computing Testbed Summary Organic Computing (OC) research focuses mainly on real-world applications, for instance, urban traffic control, smart camera networks or smart factories. The approach of introducing these new methods into real-world applications is unquestionably expedient and should not be omitted in the future. But, sometimes one faces handicaps of real-world applications that are quite hard to overcome. These can be problems of limited resources, e.g., constructing a large-scale smart camera network is very expensive, or, problems of safety concerns by the infrastructure holder, e.g., regulators do not agree with a learning (and thus non-deterministic) traffic control system. Therefore, we propose Starcraft as an Organic Computing testbed since it is not affected by problems as mentioned before, but, perfectly fits our notion of an OC system. Stefan Rudolph Daniel Mayrock Sven Tomforde ORGANIC COMPUTING GROUP FACULTY OF APPLIED COMPUTER SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF AUGSBURG [email protected] Jörg Hähner Starcraft as… Maybe the most famous instance of a real-time strategy (RTS) game is Starcraft: Broodwar (BW, sometimes also referred to as only Starcraft or Broodwar). It has been released in 1998 for PCs and since then nearly 10 million Copies have been sold. Founded on this number and on a huge amount of players attracted to the game until today, it is seen as the most successful RTS game ever. RTS games can be characterized by three main tasks the player has to fulfill: collecting resources creating buildings/units controlling the units. …OC Testbed There are several reasons that qualify BW as an OC testbed. The most important is that it shows the characteristics of an OC application, i.e., we face a set of entities (units and buildings) that interact with an environment (map and units of other players) and those entities interact in non-trivial ways. Furthermore, the environment is only partial observable and brings different types of uncertainty with it. Compared to other games that have been used as scientific testbeds, such as chess, go or poker, it creates a much bigger challenge. Another reason to chose BW as a testbed for OC techniques is the availability of an easy to use C++ library that provides an interface to the game and therefore allows the development of artificial players as well as automated test runs of it. Several bots, i.e., automated players, for BW have been released. Most of them have been designed by researchers from around the globe. Their bots compete in several tournaments that are staged at scientific conferences. Even though these bots are promising approaches, a bot that can compete with the top-level human players is still missing. This again underpins that mastering RTS games is a far from trivial problem for computer science. Observer/Controller Architecture This poster demonstrates a first step towards BW as OC testbed: We designed an Observer/Controller architecture for a BW bot using OC principles (see Figure below). We took a flat architecture for the different entities (units/buildings) that is enhanced with a hierarchical structure for different purposes, i.e., combat, economy and strategy. Observer/Controller architecture Observer Controller Legend
Transcript of An Organic Computing Testbed · games that have been used as scientific testbeds, such as chess, go...
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An Organic Computing Testbed
SummaryOrganic Computing (OC) research focuses mainly on real-world
applications, for instance, urban traffic control, smart camera
networks or smart factories. The approach of introducing these new
methods into real-world applications is unquestionably expedient
and should not be omitted in the future. But, sometimes one faces
handicaps of real-world applications that are quite hard to
overcome. These can be problems of limited resources, e.g.,
constructing a large-scale smart camera network is very expensive,
or, problems of safety concerns by the infrastructure holder, e.g.,
regulators do not agree with a learning (and thus non-deterministic)
traffic control system. Therefore, we propose Starcraft as an
Organic Computing testbed since it is not affected by problems as
mentioned before, but, perfectly fits our notion of an OC system.
Stefan Rudolph Daniel Mayrock
Sven Tomforde
ORGANIC COMPUTING GROUP
FACULTY OF APPLIED COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF AUGSBURG
[email protected]örg Hähner
Starcraft as…Maybe the most famous instance of a real-time strategy (RTS) game isStarcraft: Broodwar (BW, sometimes also referred to asonly Starcraft or Broodwar). It has been released in1998 for PCs and since then nearly 10 millionCopies have been sold. Founded on thisnumber and on a huge amount of playersattracted to the game until today, it isseen as the most successful RTS gameever. RTS games can be characterizedby three main tasks the player has tofulfill:
collecting resources creating buildings/units controlling the units.
…OC TestbedThere are several reasons that qualify BW as anOC testbed. The most important is that it shows the characteristics of anOC application, i.e., we face a set of entities (units and buildings) that interactwith an environment (map and units of other players) and those entitiesinteract in non-trivial ways. Furthermore, the environment is only partialobservable and brings different types of uncertainty with it. Compared to othergames that have been used as scientific testbeds, such as chess, go or poker, itcreates a much bigger challenge. Anotherreason to chose BW as a testbed forOC techniques is the availabilityof an easy to
use C++ library that provides an interface to the game and therefore allows thedevelopment of artificial players as well as automated test runs of it. Severalbots, i.e., automated players, for BW have been released. Most of them havebeen designed by researchers from around the globe. Their bots compete inseveral tournaments that are staged at scientific conferences. Even thoughthese bots are promising approaches, a bot that can compete with the top-levelhuman players is still missing. This again underpins that mastering RTS games isa far from trivial problem for computer science.
Observer/Controller ArchitectureThis poster demonstrates a first step towards BW as OC testbed: We designed anObserver/Controller architecture for a BW bot using OC principles (see Figurebelow). We took a flat architecture for the different entities (units/buildings)that is enhanced with a hierarchical structure for different purposes, i.e.,
combat, economyand strategy.
Observer/Controller architecture
Observer
Controller
Legend
