FlexBot, Groo, Patton and Hamlet: Research Using Computer Games as a Platform

Book One

Volume

Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 18

Intelligent Systems Demonstrations

This paper describes four systems we intend to demonstrate at the AAAI-02 Conference. The first system is FlexBot, a software agent research platform built using the Half-Life game engine. The remaining three systems are research applications that were developed on top of the FlexBot architecture: (1) Groo -- an efficient bot constructed using behavior-based techniques. (2) Patton -- a system for monitoring and controlling bots through remote, possibly mobile, devices. (3) Hamlet -- the first part of a system for monitoring players and dynamically adjusting gameplay to promote dramatic/narrative immersion. This demonstration is designed to show FlexBot in action and to exhibit the flexibility, efficiency and overall ease with which the FlexBot architecture supports a variety of AI research tasks.