Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, March, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-36). Also available on the World Wide Web.

We consider the problem of strategic adversarial planning in a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game. Strategic adversarial planning is the generation of a network of high-level tasks to satisfy goals while anticipating an adversary's actions. In this thesis we describe an abstract state and action space used for planning in an RTS game, an algorithm for generating strategic plans, and a modular architecture for controllers that generate and execute plans. We describe in detail planners that evaluate plans by simulation and select a plan by Game Theoretic criteria. We describe the details of a low-level module of the hierarchy, the combat module. We examine a theoretical performance guarantee for policy switching in Markov Games, and show that policy switching agents can underperform fixed strategy agents. Finally, we present results for strategy switching planners playing against single strategy planners and the game engine's scripted player. The results show that our strategy switching planners outperform single strategy planners in simulation and outperform the game engine's scripted AI. / Graduation date: 2013

Genetic algorithm and artificial life techniques are applied to the development of challenging and interesting opponents in a combat-based computer game. Computer simulations are carried out against an idealized human player to gather data on the effectiveness of the computer generated opponents.

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / S) technologies to demonstrate a prototypical planning tool that can be used by today's deployed warfighter. All research and work is conducted in a web-based, 'user-centric' fashion utilizing a combination of user-driven and agentbased control of entities for simulation iterations, along with various open source technologies which include Extensible 3D Graphics (X3D), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Conventions are demonstrated for the integration of the many academic disciplines utilized during this research to achieve automatic generation of tactically significant scenarios. In order to give the end-user the greatest insight towards potential drawbacks in the tactical planning against surface-borne terrorist threats, various 2D and 3D media provide both real-time and non-real time scenario playback. The result of this work is a fully integrated, prototypical, Java-based application that demonstrates how various Open-Source, web-based technologies can be applied in order to provide the tactical operator with tools to aid in Force Protection planning. Scenarios can be auto generated, viewed, analyzed, and manipulated by end users with little to no computer experience necessary beyond requirements for operation of a desktop personal computer (PC) in the Information Technology for the 21st Century (IT-21) environment at sea. This approach has broad applicability to improve the tactical awareness and defensive posture of ships defending against terrorist attacks in port. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

Thesis (M.S. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Donald P. Brutzman, Curtis L. Blais, Gordon Schacher, John Hiles. Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-224). Also available online.