Authors: Marcus Hays, JD Hoover, Erik Norlin, Joseph Kendall-Morwick

1. Agent Proving Ground: A Framework for Educational Enrichment through Simulated Environments Authors: Marcus Hays, JD Hoover, Erik Norlin, Joseph Kendall-Morwick The goal of our research is to develop a framework, known as Agent Proving Grounds (APG), to create multi-agent games for educational and artificial intelligence research purposes. APG allows for the rapid development of a wide variety of intelligent agent testing environments. This project establishes a foundation for building games using basic common elements such as tiles, entities, commands, and events. Other aspects of the framework include a web interface with visualization of the board's tiles and entities, networking capabilities, and a modular design that facilitates extensions. Framework Details • The Agent Proving Grounds Framework uses four types of objects to represent everything in games. • Tiles: • Tiles are objects the make up the game grid. • Entities: • Entities are everything that can be held or placed on the grid • Events: • Events tell that something has happened in the game and notifies all the concerned parties. • Commands: • Commands are the means through which Agents can take action in the game. Imperfect Information This framework streamlines the process of implementing games of imperfect information.  The Agent Proving Grounds' selective-recipient event system makes it possible to hide properties of the game including the board, players, and entities. This component of the framework allows for agents to have a realistic decision-making process. During the research, we implemented Wumpus World, a classic pathfinding game for artificial intelligence competitions and classes. We also implemented Stratego, a multi-player game of imperfect information and discovery. Graphical and textual representation of Wumpus World on APG Web Interface Currently users can: • Launch customized server instances • View current and past games. • Select from the framework’s implemented games. • Custom game settings • Custom Settings for Stratego ADVENTURER_ID 1 YOUR_PLAYER_ID 1 YOUR_PLAYER_COLOR BLACK ICON TILE . http://www.reupics.com//tile.png ICON TILE R http://www.reupics.com/Atomo_0.jpg ICON TILE P http://www.reupics.com/Pit_Boss.jpg ICON TILE L http://www.reupics.com/ladder.jpg END_CONFIGURATION MAP 7 5 READY TILE_AT 0 0 L ACTION 0 BLACK APPEARED 0 0 ICON ENTITY 0 http://www.reupics.com/Hero.png BEGIN_TURN MOVE S ACTION 0 BLACK MOVED_TO 0 1 BEGIN_TURN MOVE S ACTION 0 BLACK MOVED_TO 0 2 BEGIN_TURN MOVE S BREEZE ACTION 0 BLACK MOVED_TO 0 3 BEGIN_TURN Future Work • Testing in AI course • Open sourcing project • Extend documentation • Native support for large entities • Native support for entities on intersections • Walkthrough for a basic implementation Computer Science Department, DePauw University • Made Possible by National Science Foundation Grand Number CNS-1156893