Programming Robosoccer agents by modelling human behavior

Abstract

The Robosoccer simulator is a challenging environment for artificial intelligence, where a human has to program a team of agents and introduce it into a soccer virtual environment. Most usually, Robosoccer agents are programmed by hand. In some cases, agents make use of Machine learning (ML) to adapt and predict the behavior of the opposite team, but the bulk of the agent has been preprogrammed. The main aim of this paper is to transform Robosoccer into an interactive game and let a human control a Robosoccer agent. Then ML techniques can be used to model his/her behavior from training instances generated during the play. This model will be used later to control a Robosoccer agent, thus imitating the human behavior. We have focused our research on low-level behavior, like looking for the ball, conducting the ball towards the goal, or scoring in the presence of opponent players. Results have shown that indeed, Robosoccer agents can be controlled by programs that model human play.