Projects

Showcase Projects 2008

	8) Huntin' (Oregon Trail Style) Hunt wild animals just like in the old days of Oregon Trail.   Instructions: To start the hunting simulation, press go. To pause to the simulation, press stop. To reset the simulation, press Playfield reset. To use the gun, put your mouse in the center of the scope and click. Then center the scope over the target and click the mouse. To reload the weapon, put the gun down and click gun reload.
	10) Microangelo Create works of art with the assistance of microbe like agents operating on information processing principles.   Instructions: Click the Playfield Init button and sit back and watch.
	12) Mouse in a Maze A mouse must use positive taxis to quickly travel through a maze to find a wedge of cheese while avoiding poison, malnutrition, and simply getting too fat.   Instructions: Using smell, the mouse knows the general direction of the cheese, but it must navigate the maze to find it. In addition, it has to avoid deadly stimuli (poisoned cheese) and reach the real cheese before time runs out. To guide the mouse away from the poisoned cheese, the user will apply positive cues (cupcakes) to the maze that will lead the mouse to its correct destination. The cupcakes and cheese are equally attractive to the mouse. The cupcakes, however, must be used strategically; too many will result in an extremely slow, unhealthy mouse, which will inevitably result in death. To begin the game: press START button To add a cupcake to the maze: Add Cupcake button (Note: The mouse will only smell cupcakes that are added after the START button has been pressed.) To restart the game from the first level: press Reset Game To restart the current level: press Reset Level There are 3 levels, each with 35 seconds on the timer.
	18) Smart Missile Kommando a fast paced space defense game in which the player must defend their home cities from wave after wave of ever increasingly smart missile attacks. Guard your cities wisely as they hold the means of production for the very missiles you need to defend the planet with.   Instructions: The user simply has to start the game and click on the field to where they want to have a missile launched from the center turret explode. If the enemy missile hits a friendly city it will explode and no longer produce more ordianace. The game is won when all attacks have been survived but is lost if all cities are destroyed. The game can be restarted by hiting the reset button. The user will start the game by pressing the start game button.
	20) Treasure Hunt pick up treasure and bring it back to your ship before the sharks get you!   Instructions: The object of this game is to steer the diver to collect the treasure at the bottom of the bay. Once the diver has the treasure, he then has to bring it back to his ship before it can be counted towards his overall booty. All the while the diver has to avoid the shark, which will direct itself towards the diver using the difference in activation between two sensors (Tropotaxis) to determine its direction. There are also jellyfish which are positioned randomly throughout the playfield and slowly swim towards the surface. These fish are also deadly to the diver and can stun the shark. Smart divers will use the jellyfish to their advantage and lure the shark into them.

Other Individual Projects 2008

	1) Alien Attack abduct as many men as possible while avoiding the fighter jet   Instructions: The goal is to pick up 10 men while avoiding the fighter jet. The space craft can be controlled using the arrow keys on the keyboard. The game will end when the craft is destroyed by the fighter jet or the goal has been achieved. The game will commence when the player pushes the 'go' button. The game can be reset when the player pushes the 'Playfield reset' button. This can be done at any time during the game or after the game is over.
	2) Attraction In A Maze a mouse looking for cheese in a maze   In the first a few trials, it just heads up and make random turning at the intersections. But gradually, it will have got a sense of where is the cheese, and at the end, it can go directly to the terminal without wandering.   Instructions:First, set the terminal by dropping the cheese on any position (blue block); Second, click playfield reset to zero the memory of the mouse; Third, click go and the agent starts moving in the maze until it finds the cheese; Forth, click mouse reset to start another trial; after the it reaches the cheese, reset it again and again... You will find that the mouse spends less and less time to reach the cheese, just like it remembers the way to the terminal. After one orientation is established, you can change the position of the cheese, and then the mouse will forget the old one and start a new exploring. Click the "playfield reinforcementshow" to monitor the process of reinforcement learning from the color bar on each position. Click the "playfield reinforcementhide" to hide the color bar.
	3) Campaign08 Watch Obama and Clinton compete.   They'll forage for votes along the campaign trail until they run out of campaign dollars, when they'll have to either go into the central US, taking precious time from the trail, to get money from individual voters, or, if they're desperate, they'll go to Alaska to get money from lobbyists. Watch out though, the lobbyist money may prolong their trip along the trail but it'll take away from their reputation (confidence).   Instructions: Watch and enjoy (NOT FULLY FUNCTIONAL).
	4) College Rivalries A chance for Rival NCAA Teams to compete in a pseudo evolutionary tournament   The project involves a competition between various colleges (based on school colors/mascotts). The prizes will be coded as food bits, but will stand as various awards. Different colleges will have to use a multitude of strategies in order to obtain the most 'awards'...This does not go to say that some schools may have an inscripted 'edge' over others :). Using, phototaxis, chemotaxis, foraging, kinesis, and perhaps a few other elements, the mascotts will in essence race to obtain the largest number of prizes.   Instructions: The playfield reset button will randomly position both the schools and the prizes. The timer reset button will reset the time to 0. The counters for schools will increase arithmetically in correspondance to the number of prizes obtained.
	5) Feeding Time Trivia Two players match wits to endow their frogs with the best predatory strategy, which is built from the four-step predatory motor sequence outlined by Carew.   The game's goal is to demonstrate how modifying different components of a frog's four-step predatory strategy increases (or decreases) the frog's foraging efficiency. For example, how important to a successful foraging strategy is the accuracy of a frog's initial prey orientation relative to how quickly it approaches that prey? My program features two different frogs, each of which features a script (not yet devised) underlying each of the four behaviors of the predatory motor sequence. The frogs will prey on several "bugs," who will be programmed with limited frog-avoidance strategies. Outside the playfield, a "screen" and several buttons will allow players to participate in the trivia portion of the game.   Instructions: Pressing "Start New Game," unsurprisingly, starts a new game (or resets a current one). The "Next," "Previous," and "Go!!" buttons allow a player to toggle from screen to screen. Each player receives several multiple-choice questions. The "telephone pad" is used to answer. For each question answered correctly, a player increases his/her frog's hunting efficiency by optimizing one of the four behaviors that comprises the frog's predatory motor sequence; these behaviors, in order, are orientation, approach, fixation and snapping. (NOT FULLY FUNCTIONAL)
	6) Fish Fight You, a jawfish, fight the computer for pebbles and shells in order to make your fort bigger and better. You obtain these resources by blowing them off your opponent's fort with a cannon and going out to retrieve the debris.   Instructions: To start the game, simply press the start button in the center of the playfield. To reset the game, click the reset button in the lower right corner. Your fish is controled with the joystick which correspond to move up/tilt cannon up, move left/enter castle, move down/tilt cannon down, and move right/leave castle. Additionally The fishes body has to be moved over the entry to the castle in order to access the cannon. You must periodically leave the castle to collect rocks and shells to repair the damage done by the computer. Rocks must be placed over the entry to input them into walls of the fort. The game ends when either you lose all your rocks or when you take all of your opponents rocks. (MAY NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY ON NON-WIDESCREEN DISPLAYS)
	7) Hockey Shootout The hockey player (Wayne Gretzky) will skate toward the puck ("puck-taxis"), then skate through obstacles to approach the net and shoot. The number of goals the player scores will be recorded for a certain amount of time.   Instructions: Click Reset, then Go.
	9) King of the Hill Different creatures battle it off with different behavior styles to stay at the top of the brightness hill for the longest time.   Instructions: There are two normal bots (red and blue) that just move towards the light and retreat when attacked. There is a predator that follows the players and attacks them, keeping them from being around the high brightness, which can be thought of as a food source or something else advantageous. Each player gets penalized when attacked at their weak backsides or heart and awarded when hitting another player with their front. This simulation illustrates the relationship between predators and prey and the advantages of different sensing techniques.
	11) Mouse and Cheese The mouse must search on sunny, rocky ground for the cheese.   Instructions: Press the Go button to start the simulation. Once the mouse has reached the cheese, the simulation stops and you can reset the mouse.
	13) Octi Octi the octopus uses food taxis to feed on the red sea slugs. After he eats two sea slugs, the octopus switches to home taxis. The octopus switches back to food taxis once enough time has passed. The sea slugs simultaneously use food taxis and predator taxis. When the octopus gets too close, the slugs switch to home taxis. The octopus is unable to enter the yellow shelter. The slugs switch back to food taxis when their hunger level reaches a certain point.   Instructions: Press go and enjoy.
	14) PacBot Get as much food before the time expires.   The goal is for the little PacMan to gather as much food as he can before the time expires while avoiding predators that are trying to get him. The major design elements include the PacMan himself, the food, and the predator. It will illustrate food taxis, predator avoidance, and collision response behaviors.   Instructions: To begin the game, the user need only press the green "Go" button on the control panel. To reset the game, a reset button will replace all of the food pieces as well as put the PacMan and predators back in a starting position within the playfield. The user will use the arrow keys to move the PacMan around the playfield to gather the food. As the PacMan gathers more food, the predators will move faster making the level of difficulty increase as the game progresses.
	15) PauLePoulet a simulated chicken.   The chicken uses taxis to find corn and avoid pebbles; uses photokinesis to sleep at night and forage during the day. The chicken needs to gain enough energy to lay an egg.   Instructions: To run the simulation, press the "Start" button. This button brings the initial chicken to life. The "Reset" button initializes the simulation. (NOT FULLY FUNCTIONAL)
	16) Pleurb Simulate the behavior of the predatory sea slug Pleurobranchaea in a diverse environment.   The goal is to simulate the cost-benefit decision making and learning of Pleurobranchaea in an environment which has food, poisonous creatures that look like food (may induce avoidance learning with advanced programming), and predators. Combination of these stimuli should influence the behavior of the slug, which will be evident in it's orienting and avoidance turning. Two major drives of the slug's behavior will be hunger and fear. Two sensors, the tentacles, which are chemoreceptors, will be used to target stimuli and transmit the information to the ganglia for further processing.   Instructions: The slug will run on it's own and will explore the environment. The player will be able to alter this environment and observe the changes in slug's behavior. The player will be able to use simple buttons to introduce stimuli into the slug's world. Watchers will be available to keep track of the slug's hunger and fear levels.
	17) Pirate Attack rescue sailors stranded in lifeboats before being attacked by the pirate ship.   Instructions: Use the joystick to control the red rescue boat; pick up stranded sailors from as many lifeboats as possible, while avoiding the pirate ship. The pirate ship picks up speed and makes better turns as your score increases.
	19) Social Communication A demonstration of social guidance as means of overcoming a potential evolutionary disadvantage: weak food sensors   The goal of this project is to demonstrate how organisms might overcome a weak sensory input (such as poor ability to detect food) by using social cues from other organisms. The first part of the design, food taxis, will be very similar to what we've seen in an earlier exercise involving foraging behavior based on food sensory input. However, this will be modified to make the sensors much less potent than previously. Without the second part of the design, the bots will be poor foragers. The second part is to make the bots sensitive to a social guidance cue from other bots that may have already found food. The cue is a color change in bots that have found food. This cue will be strong enough that all bots that have to ability to respond to this food will rapidly approach the food source upon receipt of this cue.   Instructions: The clearAll, addBot, and addFood commands will be readily seen on the front page of the project. One the first page, the user will add food and a couple of bots, and see observe whether the bots are efficient foragers without the social guidance cue. When implemented, the user will be able to press a button directing him/her to the next page of the project, where the user will again add a bot and some food, and observe whether the bots are efficient foragers with the social guidance cue. Also, when implemented, the user will be able to quantitatively note the difference between the two conditions by observing a counter that will appear at the bottom of each page of the project.