Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Toy Project
  • Environment
• Generating Random Code
  • Operators
  • RANDOM-ELT
  • Generating Random Function Forms
    • Limiting RANDOM-FORM
  • =INPUT=
  • Testing RANDOM-ELT and RANDOM-FORM
• Running Generated Code
  • SBCL note
• Population
• Fitness
• Generation Functions
  • Traversing Nodes
    • N-NODES
    • Picking Random Nodes
    • Replacing Nodes
• Cross-overs
• Mutation
• Advancing a Generation
  • Evaluating a Population
  • HEAD
  • Running the Advancement
  • Finding a Solution
• Conclusion
• Thanks

Introduction

While my final ranking in the Google AI Contest was disappointing (280th), it was a very educational experience and was totally offset by Gábor Melis’ dominating win using Common Lisp as well.

The Planet Wars competition has been running for a month now and the deadline for submissions is Saturday the 27th of November 2010.

Don’t let the fact that it has already been running for a month dissuade you from participating. If you’re an experienced programmer a weekend of solid work will get your bot in the top 500 (out of a little more than 3000 participants currently) and maybe even in the top 100. If you’re less experienced perhaps a week or two of work will get you the same (and if not, you will still learn a lot!).