scholarly journals Achieving Goals Quickly Using Real-time Search: Experimental Results in Video Games

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 123-158
Author(s):  
Scott Kiesel ◽  
Ethan Burns ◽  
Wheeler Ruml
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Heuristic Search ◽  
Search Algorithm ◽  
Goal Achievement ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Time Domains ◽  
Planning Algorithm ◽  
On Line ◽  
Improved Performance

In real-time domains such as video games, planning happens concurrently with execution and the planning algorithm has a strictly bounded amount of time before it must return the next action for the agent to execute. We explore the use of real-time heuristic search in two benchmark domains inspired by video games. Unlike classic benchmarks such as grid pathfinding and the sliding tile puzzle, these new domains feature exogenous change and directed state space graphs. We consider the setting in which planning and acting are concurrent and we use the natural objective of minimizing goal achievement time. Using both the classic benchmarks and the new domains, we investigate several enhancements to a leading real-time search algorithm, LSS-LRTA*. We show experimentally that 1) it is better to plan after each action or to use a dynamically sized lookahead, 2) A*-based lookahead can cause undesirable actions to be selected, and 3) on-line de-biasing of the heuristic can lead to improved performance. We hope this work encourages future research on applying real-time search in dynamic domains.

scholarly journals Avoiding and Escaping Depressions in Real-Time Heuristic Search

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 523-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Hernandez ◽  
J. A. Baier
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Heuristic Search ◽  
Search Algorithm ◽  
Search Space ◽  
Search Algorithms ◽  
Search Spaces ◽  
Heuristic Search Algorithms ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Hard Real Time

Heuristics used for solving hard real-time search problems have regions with depressions. Such regions are bounded areas of the search space in which the heuristic function is inaccurate compared to the actual cost to reach a solution. Early real-time search algorithms, like LRTA*, easily become trapped in those regions since the heuristic values of their states may need to be updated multiple times, which results in costly solutions. State-of-the-art real-time search algorithms, like LSS-LRTA* or LRTA*(k), improve LRTA*'s mechanism to update the heuristic, resulting in improved performance. Those algorithms, however, do not guide search towards avoiding depressed regions. This paper presents depression avoidance, a simple real-time search principle to guide search towards avoiding states that have been marked as part of a heuristic depression. We propose two ways in which depression avoidance can be implemented: mark-and-avoid and move-to-border. We implement these strategies on top of LSS-LRTA* and RTAA*, producing 4 new real-time heuristic search algorithms: aLSS-LRTA*, daLSS-LRTA*, aRTAA*, and daRTAA*. When the objective is to find a single solution by running the real-time search algorithm once, we show that daLSS-LRTA* and daRTAA* outperform their predecessors sometimes by one order of magnitude. Of the four new algorithms, daRTAA* produces the best solutions given a fixed deadline on the average time allowed per planning episode. We prove all our algorithms have good theoretical properties: in finite search spaces, they find a solution if one exists, and converge to an optimal after a number of trials.

scholarly journals Beliefs We Can Believe in: Replacing Assumptions with Data in Real-Time Search

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (06) ◽  
pp. 9827-9834
Author(s):  
Maximilian Fickert ◽  
Tianyi Gu ◽  
Leonhard Staut ◽  
Wheeler Ruml ◽  
Joerg Hoffmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Heuristic Search ◽  
Search Algorithm ◽  
Search Algorithms ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Heuristic Search Algorithms ◽  
Original Presentation ◽  
Performance Statistics ◽  
The Cost

Suboptimal heuristic search algorithms can benefit from reasoning about heuristic error, especially in a real-time setting where there is not enough time to search all the way to a goal. However, current reasoning methods implicitly or explicitly incorporate assumptions about the cost-to-go function. We consider a recent real-time search algorithm, called Nancy, that manipulates explicit beliefs about the cost-to-go. The original presentation of Nancy assumed that these beliefs are Gaussian, with parameters following a certain form. In this paper, we explore how to replace these assumptions with actual data. We develop a data-driven variant of Nancy, DDNancy, that bases its beliefs on heuristic performance statistics from the same domain. We extend Nancy and DDNancy with the notion of persistence and prove their completeness. Experimental results show that DDNancy can perform well in domains in which the original assumption-based Nancy performs poorly.

scholarly journals Scrubbing During Learning In Real-time Heuristic Search

2016 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 307-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan R. Sturtevant ◽  
Vadim Bulitko
Keyword(s):  
State Space ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Lower Bounds ◽  
Heuristic Search ◽  
Search Algorithm ◽  
The State ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Heuristic Search Algorithm ◽  
Practical Performance ◽  
Theoretical Results

Real-time agent-centered heuristic search is a well-studied problem where an agent that can only reason locally about the world must travel to a goal location using bounded computation and memory at each step. Many algorithms have been proposed for this problem and theoretical results have also been derived for the worst-case performance with simple examples demonstrating worst-case performance in practice. Lower bounds, however, have not been widely studied. In this paper we study best-case performance more generally and derive theoretical lower bounds for reaching the goal using LRTA*, a canonical example of a real-time agent-centered heuristic search algorithm. The results show that, given some reasonable restrictions on the state space and the heuristic function, the number of steps an LRTA*-like algorithm requires to reach the goal will grow asymptotically faster than the state space, resulting in ``scrubbing'' where the agent repeatedly visits the same state. We then show that while the asymptotic analysis does not hold for more complex real-time search algorithms, experimental results suggest that it is still descriptive of practical performance.

On-Line Centralized Path Planning of Multiple Mobile Robots in Dynamic Environments

2012 ◽  
Vol 155-156 ◽  
pp. 1074-1079
Author(s):  
Zi Hui Zhang ◽  
Yue Shan Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Path Planning ◽  
Mobile Robots ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Dynamic Environments ◽  
Characteristic Line ◽  
Multiple Mobile Robots ◽  
Time Performance ◽  
Planning Algorithm ◽  
On Line ◽  
Path Planning Algorithm

To study the path planning problem of multiple mobile robots in dynamic environments, an on-line centralized path planning algorithm is proposed. It is difficult to obtain real-time performance for path planning of multiple robots in dynamic environment. The harmonic potential field for multiple mobile robots is built by using the panel method known in fluid mechanics, which represents the outward normal velocity of each line of a polygonal obstacle as a function of the length of its characteristic line. The simulation results indicate that it is a simple, efficient and effective path planning algorithm for multiple mobile robots in the dynamic environments that the geometries and trajectories of obstacles are known in advance, and can achieve real-time performance.

scholarly journals Heuristic Search for Planning with Different Forced Goal-Ordering Constraints

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Jiangfeng Luo ◽  
Weiming Zhang ◽  
Jing Cui ◽  
Cheng Zhu ◽  
Jincai Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heuristic Search ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Search Algorithm ◽  
Goal Achievement ◽  
Planning Problem ◽  
Forward Search ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Plan Generation ◽  
Ordering Constraints

Planning with forced goal-ordering (FGO) constraints has been proposed many times over the years, but there are still major difficulties in realizing these FGOs in plan generation. In certain planning domains, all the FGOs exist in the initial state. No matter which approach is adopted to achieve a subgoal, all the subgoals should be achieved in a given sequence from the initial state. Otherwise, the planning may arrive at a deadlock. For some other planning domains, there is no FGO in the initial state. However, FGO may occur during the planning process if certain subgoal is achieved by an inappropriate approach. This paper contributes to illustrate that it is the excludable constraints among the goal achievement operations (GAO) of different subgoals that introduce the FGOs into the planning problem, and planning with FGO is still a challenge for the heuristic search based planners. Then, a novel multistep forward search algorithm is proposed which can solve the planning problem with different FGOs efficiently.

Real-Time Heuristic Search for Pathfinding in Video Games

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim Bulitko ◽  
Yngvi Björnsson ◽  
Nathan R. Sturtevant ◽  
Ramon Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Heuristic Search

scholarly journals Case-Based Subgoaling in Real-Time Heuristic Search for Video Game Pathfinding

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 269-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Bulitko ◽  
Y. Björnsson ◽  
R. Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Heuristic Search ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Computation Time ◽  
Search Algorithms ◽  
Problem Size ◽  
Solution Quality ◽  
Heuristic Search Algorithms

Real-time heuristic search algorithms satisfy a constant bound on the amount of planning per action, independent of problem size. As a result, they scale up well as problems become larger. This property would make them well suited for video games where Artificial Intelligence controlled agents must react quickly to user commands and to other agents' actions. On the downside, real-time search algorithms employ learning methods that frequently lead to poor solution quality and cause the agent to appear irrational by re-visiting the same problem states repeatedly. The situation changed recently with a new algorithm, D LRTA*, which attempted to eliminate learning by automatically selecting subgoals. D LRTA* is well poised for video games, except it has a complex and memory-demanding pre-computation phase during which it builds a database of subgoals. In this paper, we propose a simpler and more memory-efficient way of pre-computing subgoals thereby eliminating the main obstacle to applying state-of-the-art real-time search methods in video games. The new algorithm solves a number of randomly chosen problems off-line, compresses the solutions into a series of subgoals and stores them in a database. When presented with a novel problem on-line, it queries the database for the most similar previously solved case and uses its subgoals to solve the problem. In the domain of pathfinding on four large video game maps, the new algorithm delivers solutions eight times better while using 57 times less memory and requiring 14% less pre-computation time.

Adaptive Signal Analysis and Interpretation for Real-time Intelligent Patient Monitoring

1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (01) ◽  
pp. 60-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. J. Manders ◽  
D. P. Lindstrom ◽  
B. M. Dawant
Keyword(s):  
Computer Architecture ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Data Abstraction ◽  
Monitoring Strategy ◽  
Intelligent Monitoring ◽  
Patient Status ◽  
On Line ◽  
Main Components ◽  
And Control ◽  
Adaptive Signal

Abstract:On-line intelligent monitoring, diagnosis, and control of dynamic systems such as patients in intensive care units necessitates the context-dependent acquisition, processing, analysis, and interpretation of large amounts of possibly noisy and incomplete data. The dynamic nature of the process also requires a continuous evaluation and adaptation of the monitoring strategy to respond to changes both in the monitored patient and in the monitoring equipment. Moreover, real-time constraints may imply data losses, the importance of which has to be minimized. This paper presents a computer architecture designed to accomplish these tasks. Its main components are a model and a data abstraction module. The model provides the system with a monitoring context related to the patient status. The data abstraction module relies on that information to adapt the monitoring strategy and provide the model with the necessary information. This paper focuses on the data abstraction module and its interaction with the model.

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