An online POMDP algorithm used by the PoliceForce agents in the RoboCupRescue simulation

Abstract

In the RoboCupRescue simulation, the PoliceForce agents have to decide which roads to clear to help other agents to navigate in the city. In this article, we present how we have modelled their environment as a POMDP and more importantly we present our new online POMDP algorithm enabling them to make good decisions in real-time during the simulation. Our algorithm is based on a look-ahead search to find the best action to execute at each cycle. We thus avoid the overwhelming complexity of computing a policy for each possible situation. To show the efficiency of our algorithm, we present some results on standard POMDPs and in the RoboCupRescue simulation environment. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.