Adaptative and scalable AI
Autonomy at the core of your systems
Direct AI is a software development kit (SDK) particularly adapted to the creation of autonomous agents evolving in an unpredictable real or virtual environment. It is the result of more than 15 years of experience and collaboration with MASA's internal and external customers. Currently in its fifth version, this recognized, mature and robust technology is applied in many research projects, with the aim of providing users with the right concepts and behavior modeling tools.
Unlike other approaches, Direct AI was designed to facilitate the development of realistic behaviors; that is, reactive, adaptive and opportunistic behaviors that know how to find a compromise in situations where goals are contradictory and several actions are possible.
Agents developed with Direct AI perceive their environment, think and act according to their drives and goals. Direct AI has applications in virtual simulations, games, connected devices, autonomous vehicles and, more generally, robots.
Direct AI has been integrated into many third-party applications and systems, including the two most popular game engines:
Can be integrated into any language with a C interface, such as Java, C# and Python in less than a day by an engineer
Direct AI includes: a C/C++ integration API, a structured AI language, a Lua behavioral scripting API and an IDE (Eclipse platform)
Demonstrations
Minesweeping robot (video presentation)
Cozmo is a robot, also used in introductory AI courses and for research. This demonstration in robotics of Direct AI takes control of Cozmo, overriding the default behavior of the robot.
The robot's mission is to inspect and defuse all mines encountered. The robot can trigger the proximity sensor of a mine. If it does, it will have 10 seconds to take cover when the countdown of the mine blinks.
The decision to take cover and to continue defining are in conflict. Direct AI resolves the conflict on the fly, without the intervention of the behavioural engineer.
The robot's behavior is totally realistic! It can clumsily miss a mine, his expressions of frustration and joy add an emotional layer to the demonstration. This is not really surprising, since one of the main contributions of the paradigm behind v is in the field of artificial life.
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City squads in Unity 3D
Below is a video illustrating the use of Direct AI in the Unity 3D game engine. A blue allied infantry platoon, supported by an armored vehicle, moves tactically through a wartime street, neutralizing any red enemies as soon as they are discovered. It illustrates a typical military mission of operation in an urban area.
All moving agents are controlled by Direct AI and behave autonomously. There is no scripted scenario: each group of Blue allied soldiers receives an 'offensive reconnaissance' mission and, as in real life, the soldiers coordinate their actions by 'talking' to each other. By default, the enemies will seek shelter and protection from the enemy.
The behavior of each AI agent (soldier) is a compromise between the need to take cover and the need to continue with the main mission. A key aspect of Direct AI is that it allows behavior programmers not to focus on explicitly resolving this conflict: they need only tell Direct AI that it is more important to take cover and continue the mission. Direct AI will take care of the rest!
