Multi-agent systems in StarCraft

The Interactive Intelligence section of the TU Delft would like to replace the game UT3 that is used in the Multi-Agent Systems project (MAS-project), which is a part of the bachelor curriculum of computer science. The game that has been selected for this purpose is StarCraft. StarCraft is called the `next challenge in AI development' by Google. To create a multi-agent system (MAS) for StarCraft, a connection is needed from the programming language GOAL to the game. During the research phase, we evaluated existing solutions and chose an API to work with. Additionally, the current MAS-project was researched. One of the biggest challenges encountered was the performance of the system. Because of the large number of agents present in the game, the agents became unresponsive. This issue was overcome by optimizing as much as possible and collaborating with the client to find solutions. We used an agile development methodology together with test-driven development which enabled us to quickly prototype the system and identify bugs as soon as possible. There were many unexpected concurrency issues due to the API in conjunction with GOAL. These issues were solved by sacrificing some performance for robustness, with careful considerations not to hurt the system. The final system that was created connects GOAL to StarCraft and is tested using a variety of unit test and coverage frameworks. The product can be used in next years MAS-projectElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer ScienceIntelligent SystemsComputer ScienceTI380