RUNNING HEAD: Artificial Intelligence in Games 1

Using Artificial Intelligence for Modeling of the Realistic Animal Behaviors in a Virtual Island

Josh De Vera, Faris Syed

Governor’s School @ Innovation Park

September 19, 2019

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Abstract

With the new innovation of technology, video games have become a lot more realistic as

individual components and graphics can make the experience more realistic. However, most

games and simulations have static parts objects or characters are limited to only certain lines and

interactions. However, artificial intelligence is a new technique being used to make these areas

more realistic and add more dynamic gameplay and environments. Using a term known as fuzzy

tactics, individual components of the game take into consideration all other aspects of the game

including their preprogrammed nature. A group of engineers used this idea and tried to create

virtual island where the user can interact with nature. All lifeforms on the island, fauna and flora,

were given their own artificial intelligence algorithms and based on the user’s actions, all life

forms changed and acted accordingly. Future implications of this research can be used towards

seeing how the introduction of a foreign organism will affect certain environments and how

humans affect the entire system. Likewise, the idea of using a fuzzy artificial intelligence

algorithm can be used to mimic other scenarios such as a battlefield and can improve the

decision making of soldiers based on the realistic environment and decision-making of others.
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Material and Methods

Using Unity as a 3D platform as a graphics interface, the engineers, Turan and Cetin,

created a virtual island with a variety of animals and plants. Once they were all given object

models to resemble the animal or plant they represented, the Turan and Cetin started to create the

artificial intelligence algorithm. The main technique they used to mimic wildlife is called fuzzy

logic method. Based on preexisting traits assigned to the animals and the immediate data

collected from around them, they make distinct moves which they would do in real life.

However, the technique is called fuzzy because it relies on probability and what the object has

learned through its existence. Therefore, they do not always do the most efficient move, but

rather the move they remember working with the algorithm influencing the decision they make.

They mainly created this algorithm for the animals as they interacted with each other more than

flora. As a result, animals were given a few basic traits: Behavior, how aggressive they are,

confidence, how well they trust their mental and physical abilities, and their health. Finally, the

program was run to test the realism of the AI program.

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Analysis

The fuzzy logic method used in the program could’ve taken one of three forms:

Triangular, trapezoid or gaussian. For the purposes of this project, they used a gaussian shape for

the initial attributes of confidence, behavior, and health, because these attributes tend to increase

or decrease in a more exponential fashion as one wrong occurrence such as a disease can have

exponential effects on an organism.

Figure 1. ​The following image represents three shapes of a fuzzy logic algorithm. Programs can

be very true-and-false based like the graph A or have a lot of different attributes adding to the

complexity of the decision-making shown in graph C. Likewise, programs can be

preprogrammed to do a favor a certain action such as graph B.

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Figure 2. ​The following is a 3D representation of the characteristics of the predetermined traits

of the animals. It shows the multiple possibilities of these attributes between different animals

and what its optimal states are

For the actions which result from these attributes, they used overlapping triangle-shaped

probability graphs. Therefore, the animals can make a distinct decision that increases linearly

based on the attributes while allowing for there be overlapping decisions which leave it to the

program to randomly pick adding a sense of randomness seen in real life. Finally, those actions
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are influenced by external sensory data such as nearby animals to determine which action is

favored.

Figure 3. ​The following is what the engineers used to determine the moves of the animals. Based

on the confidence, behavior, and health of the animals, it gives them a set of actions which it has

a probability of doing.

Figure 4. ​The final output of the possible actions is represented with the following chart where

the y axis represents the probability that it does that certain action. Likewise, there are interlaced

areas which allow for the animal to make its own decisions adding to the realism of the virtual

island and how there’s a random probability to not do the desired action.
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Figure 5. ​The following is sensory data gathered from the environment which is used to

influence the decisions of the animals. In this case, it is a rabbit who has a certain area which it

declares as its safety bubble and will immediately change its actions once another entity enters

this area.

Based on the user and other animal’s interactions the fuzzy algorithm helps determine the most

realistic plan of action. Once the program was created, the environment was observed to see how

realistic the interactions between animals and how user interaction affects the entire

environment. As predicted, the virtual island functioned like those in the real world as rabbit ran

when presented danger, and how predators like wolves were able to communicate and hunt for

food. The realistic nature of the program leads to bigger implication of the project as it can be

applied to multiple fields such as medicine and improve the learning experience.
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References

Turan, E., & Cetin, G. (2019). Using Artificial Intelligence for Modeling of the Realistic Animal

Behaviors in a Virtual Island. Retrieved September 17,2019, from:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920548919300935