Supporting sketch-based retrieval from a library of reusable behaviours

• Published in: Expert systems with applications Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 531 - 542
• Main Authors: Flórez-Puga, Gonzalo, González-Calero, Pedro A., Jiménez-Díaz, Guillermo, Díaz-Agudo, Belén
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: AI authoring tools; Algorithmics. Computability. Computer arithmetics; Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Behaviour authoring; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Editors; Exact sciences and technology; FSMs; Game design; Games; Graph matching; Graphs; Information retrieval. Graph; Non-playing characters; Programmers; Retrieval; Similarity; Software; Theoretical computing; Visual; Game design; Non-playing characters; FSMs; Behaviour authoring; Graph matching; AI authoring tools; Capability index; Costs; Similarity; Decision support system; Finite state machine; Empirical method; Reuse; Graph theory; Case based reasoning; Similarity solution; Software tool; Domain structure; Graphical interface; User assistance; Author; Indexing
• ISSN: 0957-4174; 1873-6793
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2012.07.067

► We present a visual authoring tool, eCo, which supports behaviour reuse. ► We use structural similarity to find state machines that behave similarly. ► We have successfully experimented our approach on a large repository of FSMs. ► Our approach can be applied to other graph-based representations like BTs. ► To be able to handle retrieval with big graphs we use a heuristic approach. Building the behaviour for non-player characters in a game is a complex collaborative task among AI designers and programmers. In this paper we present a visual authoring tool for game designers that supports behaviour reuse. We describe a visual editor, capable of storing, indexing, retrieving and reusing behaviours previously designed by AI programmers. One of the most notable features of our editor is its capability for sketch-based retrieval: searching in a repository for behaviours that are similar to the one the user is drawing, and making suggestions about how to complete it. As this process relies on graph behaviour comparison, in this paper, we describe different algorithms for graph comparison, and demonstrate, through empirical evaluation in a particular test domain, that we can provide structure-based similarity for graphs that preserves behaviour similarity and can be computed at reasonable cost.