When virtual robots race, science wins

Abstract

Sodarace, an asynchronous, interactive Web game that pits human-created virtual robots against artificial intelligence-based, machine-created virtual robots, has a clear winner: science. At www.sodarace.net, the game invites players to use a Java-based simulator called Sodaconstructor to create both terrains and virtual robots for racing. The site also contains three main forums: the Sodarace league forum, the AI forum, and the model-maker forum, where users communicate with each other, posing questions, challenges, and sharing advice, tips, links, and their own inventions. Lured by the racing, participants can also develop an understanding of science on many levels.