Introduction
The goal of the predator prey design project is to give you an experience of
developing an embodied & situated intelligent agent.
In a predator-prey relationship, there is at least one agent that serves as a
“food source” (i.e., the prey) and at least one agent that serves as the
“consumer” (i.e., the predator). This is a common example used in development
of softbots & robots. It provides an opportunity to study a variety of
interesting concepts, such as:
Animal behavior
Intelligent strategies, both singular & multi-agent
Building complex behaviors from simpler ones
Coordinating competing behaviors
Tuning perceptual strategies to respond to specific environmental stimuli
relevant for situation-specific responses
It also embodies a number of important higher level behaviors that would be of
general use to an intelligent agent, such as:
Navigation
Obstacle avoidance
Searching for a goal
Direction orientation
The Challenge
Each team will be designated as either a “prey” agent or a “predator” agent.
Each team is to design a robot and program it to meet its goals. The goal of
the predator is to capture the prey: the goal of the prey is to make find its
way to the safety of its den.
The Arena
The challenge will take place in an arena of approximately 6 foot X 4 foot
defined by black tape. There will be obstacles in the arena also defined by
black tape. There will be three goal areas designated by blue tape: the den,
half-court, and the far-end of the court.
Specifications
1. The robot body
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Your robot body can be of any morphology you choose.
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No robot can start out any bigger than 7 inches X 7 inches (no restriction on
height).
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You may use any configuration of touch, rotation, and light sensors (extra
touch & light sensors are available on request).
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The IR port must be oriented parallel to the ground (it cannot be pointed
upward or downward).
2. The robot programming
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Your robot must use the subsumption architecture to coordinate its behaviors.
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Behaviors may be primitive such as “turn left”, or the can be complex (i.e.,
behavior assemblages). Example prey and predator code is attached.
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Prey agents should be programmed to seek out the safety of their den. They
should stop when their den is found. If they receive a “tagged” message via the
IR port, they should stop “dead” in their tracks (see the example code).
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Predator agents should be programmed to search out and tag their prey. If they
tag their prey, they should do a victory dance and send out a “tagged” message
via the IR port (see the example code).
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Agents must not go beyond the arena border and agents must not go through
obstacles.
3. The competition
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The competition will be two rounds. The first round will be round robin. Each
head-to-head competition will be scored. The top two prey agents and top two
predator agents will then enter the second round, which will be single
elimination.
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Each match will begin with the prey in front of its den, and the predator on
the opposite wall.
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Each match will have a time limit of 5 minutes (we may decide to change this).
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Scoring: Each predator starts out with 60 points. A prey takes points away from
the predator by reaching goals areas in the arena as follows:
| Reaching half-court |
10 points |
| Reaching the far-end |
10 points |
| Reaching half-court |
10 points |
| Finding its den |
30 points |
To earn the points, the prey must reach the goal areas in the order shown. A
prey reaches half-court and its den when its body is more than 50% in the area.
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The following penalties will be tallied against either agent:
| Leaving arena |
-10 points |
| Going through an obstacle |
-10 points |
| Restarting your agent |
-10 points |
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Ties will be broken based on time.
