IMPLANT: An integrated mdp and pomdp learning agent for adaptive games

Abstract

This paper proposes an Integrated MDP and POMDP Learning AgeNT (IMPLANT) architecture for adaptation in modern games. The modern game world basically involves a human player acting in a virtual environment, which implies that the problem can be decomposed into two parts, namely a partially observable player model, and a completely observable game environment. With this concept, the IMPLANT architecture extracts both a POMDP and MDP abstract model from the underlying game world. The abstract action policies are then pre-computed from each model and merged into a single optimal policy. Coupled with a small amount of online learning, the architecture is able to adapt both the player and the game environment in plausible pre-computation and query times. Empirical proof of concept is shown based on an implementation in a tennis video game, where the IMPLANT agent is shown to exhibit a superior balance in adaptation performance and speed, when compared against other agent implementations.© 2009, Association for the Advancement of Artificial.