Optimal Offensive Player Positioning and Collaboration in a Digital Soccer Game

Candidate: Serguei Razykov
Type: Master of Science (MSc), School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Date: June 30, 2006
Senior Supervisor: Dr. Vadim Kyrylov
Thesis: Download Thesis Document

Abstract

Player positioning is critical in many sport games; we use soccer as the example. The results of this study will help to improve digital sports games technology. In existing methods, the player calculates its desired position using current location of the ball and its own role in the team formation. The existing methods have two disadvantages: neglecting the game dynamics and leaving behind some potentially good positions without consideration; the latter being the common shortcoming of decision tree algorithms. The proposed approach is taking into account the dynamics by determining the available time horizon which limits the feasible area where the optimal position is located. To make sure that all potential alternative positions in the feasible area have been evaluated and considered, the Pareto optimality approach is used. As a result, the proposed method provides the opportunity to create an optimal dynamic formation for the whole team.