Mark Humphrys - CA300 - practical

CA300 practical

Guide to this page

Sections marked in yellow are "advanced" or optional.

The World-Wide-Mind

• WWM intro

• WWM development

The basic algorithm is to repeatedly:

1. Send a "Get State" message to World server to get the state of the world, a text description of what the "body" can see.
2. Send "Get Action" message to Mind server, with the current state of the world as argument, to get the Mind server's suggestion for what action to take in this state.
3. Send "Take Action" message to World server, with that action as argument.
4. Repeat the loop.

repeat
{
 State = World.GetState();
 Action = Mind.GetAction(State);
 World.TakeAction(Action);
}	

Tyrrell's world

• Tyrrell's PhD, 1993
• See graphical image of Tyrrell's world.

What the creature sees is not the entire world. When we send the World server a "Get State" command to return a text description of what the "creature" can see, it responds with something like this.

• Definition of state format
• Definition of action format

The World server:

• w2mind.computing.dcu.ie
  • Tyrrell's world online
  • http://w2mind.computing.dcu.ie/tyrrell/tyrrell

Some pre-written Mind servers for this World: w2mind.computing.dcu.ie "Drives" mind server for Tyrrell world "Edmund" mind server for Tyrrell world http://w2mind.computing.dcu.ie/tyrrell/drives http://w2mind.computing.dcu.ie/tyrrell/ed

Scoreboard

• scoreboard
  • You need to send an "End Run" command to get onto it.
  • To see the new scoreboard: Browser "Reload" may not refresh it. If not, just click any link to it to fetch it again (this is just what the link "Refresh Scoreboard" is).
  • also in SOML (need IE)
  • advanced scoreboard - detailed breakdown, customisable

How to solve the problem

This Mind will repeatedly ask the World to describe itself by sending it a "Get State" message, then tell the creature what to do by sending the World server a "Take Action" message. For example, you could:

1. Simply run one of the existing Mind servers in the World, and see how well you score.

2. Construct a totally new Mind server online yourself, and run that. i.e. A program that responds to the HTTP WWM command "Get Action". This program can then be run by other people.

3. Construct a new Mind "server" offline, and run that. i.e. Simply a program offline that repeatedly queries the World for state and then sends it an action. This program cannot be run by other people.

4. Construct a new Mind server yourself, online or offline, which calls an existing online Mind server. The WWM architecture encourages this, to encourage re-use of other people's Minds. This is the whole point of the WWM (also here). This is called a MindM server. It may add some actions of its own, or not.

5. The MindM server may call multiple online Mind servers, and choose between their multiple suggested actions in order to get the action to take. This is called a MindAS server.

6. Sub-goal only: You may decide to specialise on only one sub-goal, or a small set of sub-goals. e.g. Create the best food-finder. Your friend creates the best predator-avoider. Use the advanced scoreboard to sort based on your sub-goal. A third friend then combines these ultra-specialists into a MindAS system.

3rd year AI practical

1. Write a program to drive the agent in the "Tyrrell's world" problem by any means possible, in any programming language, using any method (hand-coded, search, learning, evolution, etc.). From the AI point of view, this illustrates a problem with an unpredictable world, a massive state-space, and no known optimal solution.
2. Get your score onto the scoreboard.
3. Write up how you did it, including the full commented source code of all programs involved.
   (Hint: Colour printout in landscape mode is normally the best way to print out code.)
4. Give me a tidy, bound write-up on paper by the deadline. Use the Project Submission Form as the front page.
5. Either (a) give this to me at a lecture, or (b) drop it into the project box in L114 that has my name and "CA300" on it.

Rules:

1. You are not to email me with problems. Instead come to me after lectures (Mon) or at appointed times (Thur). Only email me if there is an emergency (e.g. the site is down).

2. Or use the CA300 discussion board. I will look at this from time to time: Charlie Daly discussion boards (or via here) CA300 discussion board email lists CA300 email list

3. You may have any number of attempts, with any number of scores on the scoreboard. Please highlight your best score in the write-up.
4. Please always use your proper name (no nicknames), or scores will NOT be properly credited to you.
5. If any 2 students have the same name, please use extra identifying info (though the link to your email/homepage should identify you uniquely).

How to write a Mind

1. Write it in Java offline using the Tyrrell Mind Development Kit.
2. Use these submission instructions except:
   1. Instead of emailing it to Ciarán O'Leary, send it to me using this form. This is a feedback form I use for my family tree website. Don't worry about what it says. I'll just use it temporarily for the CA300 project until we design the new web-based system.
   2. Because the form (unlike email) does not identify you, please use your proper name (no nicknames) to identify the file. Please use a naming scheme like: JaneMurphy1.jar, JaneMurphy2.jar, etc.
   3. You can add any special comments I need to read in the "Updates" text box.

3. Do not email your file to me.
4. I will put it online when I next log in. Note that at present I cannot update the site from home. So it must wait until I next log in in DCU.
5. You can make any number of submissions.

6. How to write a MindM server with the Java toolkit Note that you can make your sub-Mind more re-usable in larger Minds by returning accurate "goal" and "steps" information.

How to see what is happening in the World

• You write the Mind offline, using a local copy of Tyrrell's world. This displays a graphical image of the state of the world. See the -graphics option.

Send commands through HTML form

• Send SOML commands manually to the Tyrrell World server

• Send SOML commands manually to the "Drives" Mind server for the Tyrrell world.

"View Source" on these web pages to see (a) how to send your own name as the user, and (b) how to write a page to send commands to the "Edmund" Mind server.

Client

• tools

• client

Some notes with the Java client:

1. Java version
   • You need Java 1.5 or later
   • To check your version, on command-line:

     $ java -version
     

   • CA Labs should have version 1.5 or later. Tell me if not.

2. Cut and paste
   • When pasting in data, tabs and newlines in the data may cause problems in some fields.
     Solution: select and paste just the data without tabs, newlines.

3. Apparently not relevant if server is within DCU, but relevant if server is outside DCU:
   • On Windows in DCU, HTTP requests have to go through one of the DCU proxy servers.
   • So the solution is: Outside DCU, run the client as:

     java -jar client.jar

     Within DCU, run it as:

     java -DproxySet=true -DproxyHost=proxy.dcu.ie -DproxyPort=8080 -jar client.jar

Run your own Mind server remotely

They can all be run remotely, e.g. by sending SOML commands manually:

Send SOML commands manually to a student-submitted Mind server for the Tyrrell world.

or by some other method (e.g. using the client).

Very important: Here's how it works. You run your Mind say 100 times offline (i.e. not talking to the World server) and it scores well. You submit it. I will only run it 5 times to give it places on the scoreboard. Since it is a probabilistic world, these may all be "unlucky" runs. To give it more runs to look for a higher score, you should run it yourself remotely using the client (or other method).

Marking

All I ask is that your write-up is honest and explains what you did. I will decide the exact score at the end:

1. You will get marks for performing well on the standard scoreboard (surviving plus mating).
2. You will get marks for performing well on some specialised sub-goal on the advanced scoreboard.
3. You will get marks for the write-up.

4. Just to say explicitly about the write-up: You will get marks for good analysis of how the world and your mind, or other minds, work. Even if you find a bug in the world, write it up and you can get marks. If you find "bugs" (or at least strange features) in the world, isolate them, replicate them and write it up properly and you will get marks for such analysis.

5. No Mind server Even if you didn't write the Mind server, you may still get some marks for using an existing Mind server in a clever way, e.g. with creative arguments.

6. Mind server
   1. You will get a lot of marks for writing your own Mind server, offline or online. But you must document how it works and why it scored the points it did. If any dishonesty is detected in your write-up you will fail the project and have to repeat next year.
   2. You will get a lot of marks for using search, learning, evolution, or any other interesting algorithm, in your server.

   3. You will get marks for using any method other than the standard Java MDK submission (e.g. other programming languages, offline programs, your own online server, etc.), depending on how much extra work it involved.

7. MindM server You will get marks for a Mind server that re-uses an existing Mind server. i.e. A MindM server. The WWM is all about this kind of re-use. It's meant to be this way. But you must document how you did this. If any dishonesty is detected in your write-up you will fail the project and have to repeat next year. You may re-use your classmates' Mind servers, your own Mind servers, and our pre-written Mind servers (and any other Mind servers you can find). For their URLs see the scoreboard. You may even re-use previous years' Mind servers, if they are still online. If they are still online, you can see their URLs on the scoreboard. You will get marks if your Mind server is re-used, even if it was nothing to do with you.

8. MindAS server You will get a lot of marks for re-using multiple other Mind servers, and having some kind of "server selection" algorithm. i.e. A MindAS server.

9. Creative cheat You may see that you could use someone else's Mind server(s) to score high on the scoreboard, while fooling the scoreboard into thinking it was your Mind server that had the intelligence. You will actually get marks for doing this, provided you write it up properly. If any dishonesty is detected in your write-up you will fail the project and have to repeat next year.

10. Creative fighting of cheat You will get marks for any methods to detect and block (or mislead!) such "hijacking" of your Mind server. Again, write it up properly.

Your program will be archived

By default:

1. Your program will go into an ongoing WWM library of Mind servers for the Tyrrell world.
2. Your program may be online forever at our site.
3. Your program may be re-used in larger, multi-Mind systems.
4. These will be written up in scientific papers, like our paper at the 7th International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior in Edinburgh in 2002.
5. If your Mind is ever re-used like this, you will be fully credited, including a credit in any published papers.
6. Previously, we discussed some students' Minds in our paper at the 8th International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior in Los Angeles in 2004.

On the other hand, if you do not want this to happen, that's fine. There is no problem, and no penalty. I do not even need to know what your reasons are. Just tell me not to archive your Mind on the form when you submit it.

Return to CA300 page.