Hi all.
I have collected all the proposals that have been circulated in the
Robocup Rescue mailing list and created a voting form so we can decide
what changes to implement for the 2005 competition.
I have broadly grouped the proposals into 4 categories:
1) Implementation changes: Modifications to the operation of the
simulator kernel that should have little or no impact on teams.
2) Design changes: Changes to the way the simulator works overall. These
will generally require significant development of the simulators and
kernel as well as modifications to the way teams implement their agents.
3) Simulator changes: These are modifications to the behaviour of
individual simulators. These will indirectly affect the way teams
implement their agents.
4) Rule changes: These are proposals that only affect the rules of the
competition, or have minor implementation details.
The proposals within each category are roughly sorted in increasing
order of effort required for implementation.
A brief description of each of the options is included in the voting
form. Obviously some of the options fit into more than one category (or
none at all) and some options will require more work depending on which
other options are voted in, so please treat the comments as a summary
rather than a definition.
Many of these issues will require further discussion, so please use the
mailing list to ask questions or comment on the options.
Please fill in the attached voting form and send it back to me on or
before January 3.
Thanks,
Cameron Skinner
-- Cameron Skinner Artificial Intelligence Group Department of Computer Science The University of Aucklandemail: cam@cs.auckland.ac.nz phone: +64 9 3737599 x82924 fax: +64 9 3737453
Post: Department of Computer Science The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland New Zealand
Voting Form
===========
Team name:
Institution:
Team leader:
Email:
Implementation changes
======================
1) Extending the communication protocol to include a length field for each property element. This will be easy to implement and will not affect team code aside from minor modifications to the communication layer.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
2) Move communication and perception code out of simulator kernel and into seperate modules. This will require a small amount of effort to implement but will not affect teams at all. The initial implementation will simply move the existing functionality into seperate modules.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
Design changes
==============
3) Extend communication design to include the idea of "communication channels". This will involve a significant programming effort but will not affect teams to a large degree if option b is chosen. Option a involves defining a set of channels each with their own bandwidth and (optionally) reliability. Agents will be allowed to listen to some small number of channels (e.g. 1 or 2) and send on only one channel at a time. Centers will be able to both listen to and send to more channels than individual agents. Agents will also have an extra command available for specifying which channels they are listening and sending to. This option is closely linked to option 2 above.
[a] Implement for 2005 with full functionality
[b] Implement for 2005 but only emulate existing cummunication functionality (this will not require major changes to team code)
[c] Implement for 2006 or later
[d] Do not implement
4) Allow messages to be lost during communication in a controlled fashion.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
5) Damage on streets. If an agent is next to a burning building or a building collapses when the agent is nearby then they may suffer damage.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
6) Introduce the concept of "capabilities" for describing what different agents can do. Initially this will involve only a few capabilities (extinguish, move, clear, rescue, load etc) that emulate the existing simulator behaviour - i.e. fire agents will have both the extinguish and move capabilities, ambulances will have move, rescue and load.
[a] Implement for 2005 (this will require significant effort to recode the simulators and team code)
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
7) Allow AK_MOVE to include positionExtra. This will require modification of the traffic simulator and possible minor changes to team code.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
8) Seach command. This will add a SEARCH command for agents and will require the perception code to be altered. This proposal is closely linked to option 10 below and does not make sense unless 10 is also adopted.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
9) Crowd behaviour. This will involve adding a new kind of object to the simulator (a crowd object) and an action for police to direct the crowd. The traffic simulator will need to be modified to allow crowds to affect the movement of vehicles.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
Simulator changes
=================
10) More accurate perception model. This will change the perception to a model with the ability to reduce the range of perception dependant on factors such as smoke, buildings in the way, blocked roads etc. There are several aspects to this, so please choose one of the following options for each aspect:
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
10.1) Line of sight calculations. This will calculate perception based on what the agents can actually see. This is computationally expensive, but line-of-sight can be calculated at start-up and cached.
10.2) Smoke. This will reduce the range of perception if an agent is inside a smoke cloud. This will also require a definition of how smoke behaves.
10.3) Probabilistic perception rather than deterministic. This will generate sensory information in a probabilistic manner - for example, if an agent is moving quickly then it might not observe some things as well as if it is stationary. This is closely related to the search command proposal (number 8, above).
10.4) Action observation. This will send updates to agents when they observe another agent taking some action, such as extinguishing a building.
10.5) Negative observations. This will send updates when you do not observe something. For example, if this agent cannot see ambulance team 4 then an update will be sent with a zero position for ambulance team 4.
11) Aftershocks. There is the potential for an aftershock to bury all rescue agents which would make it impossible to take any further actions during the run. We can either allow this or make the rescue agents immune to this kind of effect.
[a] Implement for 2005 with potential damage/buriedness for all agents
[b] Implement for 2005 with rescue agents immune to aftershock damage
[c] Implement for 2005 with ambulance agents immune to aftershock damage
[d] Implement for 2006 or later
[e] Do not implement
12) Causal relationships. This includes various features such as buildings collapsing due to fire, collapsing later in the simulation just because they are unstable, roads becoming blocked during the run due to building collapse, fires starting during the simulation due to collapse.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
Rule changes
============
13) More fires. At the moment the maximum number of initial fires is in the range [2,8]. We can increase the maximum number of starting fires to make it harder for teams to know when they have extinguished all the fires.
[a] Increase the maximum to a large number e.g. 50
[b] Increase the maximum to a slightly larger number e.g. 20
[c] Leave the maximum at 8
[d] Change the maximum to some other number
14) No extinguishing from inside buildings. Currently fire agents can execute an extinguish command from inside a neighbouring building. This rule would modify the fire simulator so that such actions are not executed. If option 16 below is adopted then this may not be necessary.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
15) Burning refuges / stations. Currently refuges and stations cannot burn. The ResQ-Freiburg fire simulator allows for these buildings to be burned but this feature can be turned on or off.
[a] Allow refuges and stations to burn
[b] Do not allow refuges and stations to burn
16) Limited space in buildings. Currently any number of agents can occupy a building. Refuges and stations will still have infinite capacity. We will also have to decide how many agents can fit inside a building.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
17) New agent types: water tanker and helicopter. This will require modification of the kernel and misc simulator. Water tankers will be able to transfer water to fire trucks via a new command. Helicopters will have a large perception area.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
18) Do not send all IDs at startup. Currently the simulator sends the ID of every object in the world when agents connect, allowing teams to easily know when they have rescued (or at least found) all civilians. This rule would require the modification of the kernel to only send IDs when the civilians are observed. Fixed objects (nodes, roads, buildings) will still be sent as normal. Teams may need to modify their code.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
19) Addition of rescue agents part way through. Currently the number and type of rescue agents is fixed at the start of the simulation. It would be possible to allow more agents to join the simulation part way through the run. This will require significant modification of the kernel and team code.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
20) Path planning plugin. This proposal would allow teams to provide a "path planning plugin" instead of sending move commands as a list of IDs. This proposal will be difficult to implement and will require major changes to the traffic simulator, kernel and team code.
[a] Implement for 2005
[b] Implement for 2006 or later
[c] Do not implement
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