Regular Expression :'(

So I have decide to make a start on things I currently am trying to make a command parser for the server outputs which has led me to having to try and remember regular expression(lets just say it wasn't one of my favourite subjects covered in college) as it would appear that a string tokeniser using regular expression is the most efficient way Java has of breaking up long strings of words. Oh I have also made a little program that connects to the server initialises itself as a player and then listens for server commands/outputs. Once i get the tokeniser part working as well and all possible server outputs properly parsed and stored i plan to move onto Agent Factory and make an AFAPL implementation of my Java program.

In other good news I have finally gotten around to reading the book chapter Rem gave me I shall post a little review /explanation of it after I re read it so that it sinks in a bit more.

Instalation SUCCESS!!!!

Well Christmas day has come and gone and my exams are finally over so I had no excuses left for putting of installing all the software need for the project. I made a fresh ubuntu install set up Sun Java and Netbeans, added the Agent Factory plugin to netbeans and installed the 2D Soccer Server. I went with the 2D version for a few reasons one being that I presumed it would require less resources to run and two being that the 3D instructions on the soccer server wiki seem to be out of date :(

Anyway all is well in the land of Dave and Linux. Now I just need to make an agent talk to the server. Let the FUN begin.

Page I used to install the 2D Soccer Server
http://sserver.wiki.sourceforge.net/Install_2D

Page I used to install the Agent Factory Plugin for Netbeans
http://www.agentfactory.com/index.php/Netbeans_Plugin

Meeting with Rem

So i had another meeting with Rem the other day and i must say i found it really cool to sit there and just throw ideas back and forth. Granted my current agent factory knowledge is not up to expert levels but my understanding of how AOPL works has come along to where i can now understand how it works.

We discussed several aspects of the project and i now have a clearer picture of what is needed regarding the later parts of the project but for now i am focusing on simple baby steps.

In the coming weeks i am hoping to do some diagrams to help show what way the project is going to be structured so fingers crossed.

A couple of notes from the meeting.
1) I need to contact Dave Lillis and get set up as a poster to the agent factory wiki
2) I need to get Netbeans and install agent factory and get that working
3) I need to begin to get an agent made that can talk to the SoccerServer.
4) I need to read the newer soccer server manual
5) I need to register for the RoboSoccer mailing list and fire off a few mails to find out all the new improvements to SoccerServer as my current manual is dated 2003
6) I need to read the book chapter Rem gave me
7) I need to read the SoSAA paper
8) I need to set up SVN on Agent Factorys sourceforge

A couple of other important things that came up that i want to note for future reference. The time criticalness of the SoccerServer clients may cause problems later on as agent factory is single thread thus if i have 12 agents and a 400ms cycles each agent only gets roughly 33ms of CPU time. Serveral solutions to this were bounced around during the meeting. I suggested maybe turning off agents when they aren't needed eg the goalie isn't needed if we are attacking so savings like that may help. Also using pure java classes/methods to refine/improve performance in critical parts of the agents programming. Rem even said he would consider making refinements to agent factory so that it was more focused on RoboSoccer/time critical agent based systems. He said he could go back to an earlier version of agent factory that was multi-threaded although he said they found this to be slower than single thread but for my needs it may actually prove faster. Again this is all just being jotted down for later reference.

We also discussed SoSAA which is a method that allowes us to merge CBSE and AOSE ideas. More on this after read the paper rem gave me. Basically CBSE is good at low-level stuff and AOSE is good at high level stuff and S0SAA is a way or merging the aspects of both approaches eg Componets and Agents. But like i said more on this later.

Also Rem was very cool for suggesting that we may release some of my stuff on the agent factory wiki when it is a viable/useful tool.

So that all for now i have a tonne of college work due between now and the end of term I'll cross off what i get done form the list when i get it done and hopefully i can start to make a bit of progress between now and the end of January.

Agent Factory ON HOLD

Yeah so i've been really busy and will be for the next couple of weeks with course work. If i get some free time between now and christmas i'll blog about it but don't expect anything new till the new year :(

Agent Factory is GO!!!!!!!

So I've moved onto researching Agent Factory and Agent Oriented Programming or AOP for short. Rem has provided me with a few starter texts so let the reading begin :)

Review finally finished!!

So i spent most of last night and this morning re reading the manual and making sure i knew what was required for the various agents. I have compiled a brief introduction which i have forwarded onto my supervisor to see if we can now proceed with the brain storming session or if he feels more information is required for the introduction.

Car Park meeting with Rem

So i've been a bit busy with other course work for the past week or so and have neglectied my RoboSoccer a lot.

Was walking to the car on thursday and ran into Rem. Firstly i appologied for not being in contact with him in a while but what followed was a conversation that put to bed my fears about agent factory. Rem said that all the java methods that i planned to use in a purely java based client can be integrated into an agent factory agent. The agent will do the dicision process and then call on the java methods to actually do what it wants. Must get a propper diagram drawn up over the next week or so and post it here as a record of the planned structure of the agent.

My three goals for the coming weeks are
1 - Finish reading the manual and prepare the document for rem
2 - Get the simulators up and running and play with them
3 - Get a diagram of the structure of the agents programming done

SoccerServer Overview / project update

Right so having read the first few chapters of the manual i just wanted to post a more concrete general overview of the soccersever program.

- Client -- Server Interaction
- Each Team is made up of 11 induvidual clients
- Comunicate via UDP/IP protocols
- Inter-Client Communication via Server only using talk commands
- Server Provides all low level functions e.g., Walk,turn,run,kick,stamina,vision
- Client is basically just a football players brain

Following on from a meeting with Rem i'm going to produce a paper with an overview of the soccerserver system. This will then be distributed to some experts in the college and Rem is going to organise a brain storming session. Hopefully we can then find a way to use Agent Factory in the making of the various clients required to make a team.

Simulator Woo's

So it would appear that i don't need to compare and contrast the simulators. They respond to the same commands and only offer different views of the game graphically. The simulators it appears do everything like walking, kicking, visual field, and a host of other things. I have to communicate with it through UDP protocols. I can then send instructions to the players in the simulators and they can also report back to me there current state e.g., where they are, how much energy they have, who is near them etc. Now i need to read this 120page manual in dept and extract the available commands and messages the simulator offers.

First Meeting

So i had an unplanned but very productive meeting with my project supervisor Rem. He explains the bones of the the design of agent based technology. He showed me the stack like representation which i have to draw out. My first goal is to compare and analysis the 2d and 3d simulators. Only downside to this is it looks like I'll have to live in Linux to do this project :'(

Welcome

This is a blog setup to record my progress with my 4th year project.