NERO: Neuro-Evolving Robotic Operatives

NERO is an example of a new genre of games, called Machine Learning Games. Although it resembles some RTS games, there are three important differences: (1) in NERO the agents are embedded in a 3D physics simulation, (2) the agents are trainable, and (3) the game consists of two distinct phases of play. In the first phase individual players deploy agents, i.e. simulated robots, in a "sandbox" and train them to the desired tactical doctrine. Once a collection of robots has been trained, a second phase of play (either battle or territory mode) allows players to pit their robots in a battle against robots trained by some other player, to see how effective their training was. The training phase…