Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Date of Award

January 2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Robert G. Reynolds

Abstract

This paper describes a system containing two portions whose purpose it is to help further the Alpena-Amberley Land Bridge research project and similar archaeological research. The first portion is a "time engine" which one can utilize to navigate through time in order to see how environmental conditions evolved as time passed, or to run experiments during a desired time period. The second portion is a hunting blind cultural algorithm, which is built on top of the time engine as well as Palazzolo's program. In this portion, the AI hunting blinds react to the goals that they are trying to achieve, and the goals themselves change as the environment changes over time. When the cultural algorithm is finished, the system also produces a frequency heatmap showing how often the system predicted a hunting blind within each location throughout the entire time period. Archaeologists can use this to determine which places in the area would be most worthy of sending an expedition.

Download

Share

COinS