An Artificial Animated Boxer

A tempting goal of artificial life is to model independently acting human characters that appear to behave realistically to a viewer. By modeling artificial human characters engaged in one activity, such as boxing, we may gain insights into the larger problem of creating convincing humans. In the case of boxing, we are specifically concerned with reactive motion. A boxer must react quickly to incoming punches from an opponent, while attempting to catch the opponent off guard with a well placed attack. In order to make the reactive boxer interactive for a human user, we would like the system to run in real time. There are strategies to boxing that should be kept in mind when designing a system to animate synthetic boxers. A right handed boxer will typically approach an opponent with his left side facing forward. This makes it easier to protect himself and gives his left hand the shortest distance to travel to the opponent. There are four punches used in boxing: the jab, cross (straight right), hook, and uppercut. The jab is thrown with the left arm, being used as a defensive tool or to get the opponent off guard to set up a more powerful punch. The other three punches are thrown with the right arm. The cross is the most simple of these, while the hook requires twisting and arching of the body. This makes the hook more difficult to execute and leaves the body partially open to attack. Similarly, an uppercut comes from below, but is a risky punch to throw. The cross and uppercut both have the advantage of being powerful and difficult to see since they don’t come in the line of the opponent’s vision. Feints are faked punches used to make it difficult for an opponent to read a boxer’s body language and are also an important part of a boxer’s repertoire. A boxer might have a defensive style, making him known as a grinder, or an offensive style, a puncher. A good defense will make use of blocks, dodges, feints, and jabs to wear down an opponent. With basic boxing strategy in mind, a behavioral system to make use of it may be designed.