XanderFramework

The Xander framework is an AdvancedRobot framework that makes it easy to build new bots by combining different guns, radars, and drives. It is based on an abstract class named AbstractXanderBot that extends AdvancedRobot. For a gun, drive, or radar to be used in the Xander framework, it has to implement the corresponding interface Gun, Drive, or Radar.

Below is a list of pluggable components I've built so far. I have more planned.

Xander Radars

BasicRadar

Basic radar scan the field, and locks onto the first target it finds. Target can switch if another robot happens to be closer and drives through the scan beam.

Xander Guns

LinearGun

This gun is for targeting opponents that drive in a straight line. It fires on the opponent based on the opponents current speed and heading. It does not attempt to determine whether the target is actually moving in a straight line or not.

CircularGun

This gun is for targeting opponents that drive in circles. If the opponent does not appear to be going in circles, this gun will not fire on the target.

StatGun

This gun is a "guess factor" gun that relies on statistics to determine how to aim. If will not fire until there are sufficient stats to make a good guess. It relies on a Segmenter to determine how to categorize the statistics it collects (Segmenter is a separate interface).

CompoundGun

Combines two or more other guns. Compound gun delegates gunning to other guns based on the order they were added to the compound gun. Compound gun will check the guns in order until it finds a gun that claims it can fire on the designated target, and then allows that gun to fire.

GunSelector

Compound guns can be set up with different gun selection modules. At present, I have two available gun selection modules:

• FirstAvailGunSelector - original behavior before gun selectors, this one just hands off to the first gun it finds that claims it can fire at the target.
• HitRatioGunSelector - this gun selector looks at gun hit ratios and bullets fired for each gun to determine which gun to fire with.

Xander Drives

OrbitalDrive

This drive approaches the target using linear targeting and then, when it range, orbits around the target, changing direction periodically. It also uses "inverse gravity bullet avoidance"; this is currently somewhat experimental, and at present assumes the opponent is using either head-on or linear targeting (probably not a good idea agaist published robots who are likely mostly using guess factor guns).

AvoidanceDrive

This drive relies exclusively on "inverse gravity bullet avoidance" to control movement. Not really meant for real combat, this drive was created to test various aspects of bullet avoidance.

Example Xander Robot

As an example of how the Xander framework is used, below is the source for the main robot class of XanderCat 2.0.

/**
 * 1-on-1 robot built on the Xander framework.  Also suitable for melee.
 * 
 * @author Scott Arnold
 */
public class XanderCat extends AbstractXanderBot {	
	
	@Override
	protected Level getLogLevel() {
		return Log.Level.INFO;
	}

	@Override
	protected Radar createRadar() {
		return new BasicRadar(this, 45, 5);
	}

	@Override
	protected Drive createDrive() {
		return new OrbitalDrive(this, 200, 40, 0.5f);
	}

	@Override
	protected Gun createGun() {
		FiringProfile firingProfile = new FiringProfile(
				1.0d, 500d, 3.0d, 150d, 0.5d, 450d, 700d);
		Segmenter segmenter = new CompoundSegmenter(
				new BulletTravelTimeSegmenter(getName(), 12, getBattlefieldBounds()),
				new RelativeDirectionSegmenter(10));
		return new CompoundGun(
				new StatGun(this, firingProfile, 1000, 10, 30, segmenter, true),
				new CircularGun(firingProfile), 
				new LinearGun(firingProfile));
	}

}