BOD MASON

Behavior Oriented Design (BOD) is a way to develop AI systems.  It requires a modular behavior library in any OO language, and a version of POSH action selection for that language.   jyPOSH is a version of POSH that runs in python and jython.  MASON is an agent-based modelling simulation toolkit.  It builds an environment for you and lets you spawn lots of agents and then keep track of what they do.

BOD MASON allows you to use BOD to create complicated agents relatively easily in MASON.  It not only gives you POSH action selection to simplify the coordination of your agents, but also it allows you to code your agents in python rather than Java (the language MASON is written in), which makes writing code faster and easier.

We currently distribute with jyPOSH the latest version of MASON we support, so all you need to do is follow the jyPOSH installation instructions.

To run the program you need to type: jython jyposh.py from a command line to start up the GUI.  In case you aren't used to running Java from a command line, here are some instructions per OS:

• Windows: 
  
• Start->Run->cmd
• at the prompt, type c: (or whatever drive you have installed jyposh on).
• cd jyposh (or whatever directory you have installed jyposh in).
• add mason.jar to the environment, type: set CLASSPATH=%CLASSPATH%;C:\jyposh\mason.jar (using whatever the correct path to the jar file is)
• c:\jython\jython.bat jyposh.py (or wherever you have installed jython for that initial path!)
• Mac OS X:
• Use the terminal program, which is in your Applications->Utilities folder.
• Follow the instructions for Linux / Unix
• The /path/to/jython will be /Applications/jython-21/jython for you.
• Linux / Unix:
• You folks all know how to use a prompt, right?
• These instructions assume you are using bash. If you don't know what bash is and you are on a mac or linux, you are probably using it, don't worry.
• Add mason.jar to the classpath, "export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/path/to/mason.jar"
• cd to the directory pyposh is installed in
• run "/path/to/jython jyposh.py"

• Once you have started the GUI, click on the MASON tab at the top of the window.
• Select sheepdog.py from the drop down list of possible simulation start files.
• Click the "Run Simulation" button to load the simulation.
• Then click the triangle "Play" button to start.

• Instructions for integrating eclipse are also in the jyPOSH installation instructions.
• Bug reporting & tracking is now available from the BOD Developer Page.

Acknowledgements

• The merging of these technologies & the initial set of behaviour libraries (sheep/dog) was created initially by Tristan Cauflield for EASSS 2005.  It has since been maintained and improved by Jan Drugowitsch, who worked on the code from 2005-2007.
  
• Hagen Lehmann has used BOD/MASON during his PhD and has therefore contributed a great deal to our understanding of what needs to be done. 
  
• Funding for Hagen's studentship & Jan & Tristan's time was provided by The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Grant GR/S79299/01 (AIBACS), ``The Impact of Durative Variable state on the Design and Control of Action Selection''.