This program was created for the sole purpose of testing my implementation of the rtES-HyperNeat algorithm. The idea is to generate a set of racer-agents that must learn to race proficiently around a track. Several tests have been designed, each with different challenges.
rtES-HyperNeat (Real Time Evolving Substrate Hypercube based Neuro-Evolution of Augmenting Topologies) is a real time neuro-evolution algorithm based on the papers written by Kenneth Stanley and other researchers at the EPLEX group (http://eplex.cs.ucf.edu/). More specifically, rtES-HyperNeat tries to blend the existing ES-HyperNeat (http://eplex.cs.ucf.edu/ESHyperNEAT/) algorithm with rtNeat (http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?rtNEAT), a previous version which allowed real time evolution of agents on a virtual field. The main problem with trying to make ES-HyperNeat real-timed was that the CPPNs (genotypes) had to be converted into functional Neural Networks (phenotypes) on a single time-step. This was proven to be impossible, so, as a solution, the library handles these transformations on separate execution threads. This way, the algorithm flows seamlessly.