For a long time I've felt the Easter eggs you buy in the shops were missing something. There's never enough chocolate, and when I was a kid, the chocolate treats used to be inside.

This year I decided to make my own. I made a mould out of paper mache and cling-film and coated the inside with chocolate, a lot of chocolate. The finished product was fantastic. It looks a bit like a dinosaur egg, which wasn't quite what I intended, but I think it adds to its charm.

Next year, I might try and perfect the mould to get a smoother outside. I might also try and make it twice as big. Mmmmmmmmm, chocolate!

It's six years since I did my university final year project, but I'm still quite proud of it. I've meant to get around to publishing it online for a while. There is a copy in Leeds University Library, but I thought this would improve my readership.

I might put up my source files at some point, but for now I'm just including the report.

I developed a genetic computer algorithm that mimicked evolution to evolve small virtual robots that chased each other.

Summary

This report details the methods and results of a set of experiments into evolving virtually intelligent agents capable of displaying pursuit evasion behaviour. The advantages of randomness in such behaviour was investigated and how the complexity of the world affected agent behaviour was also looked into. The conclusions drawn were found to be similar to the ones expected but some interesting questions were also raised by the results.

Download the report

Evolving Pursuit and Evasion Strategies in Realistic Worlds ( 908KB, 42 pages)