A Hands-on Tutorial for Building Agent Models in Soar

The tutorial provides participants with an understanding of the details of Soar so that they can create simple Soar programs. This is a full-day tutorial, with an emphasis in the morning on understanding the syntax and structure of the architecture (the memories and processes), and an emphasis in the afternoon on agent development. In the morning, participants will learn to run, modify, and debug small demonstration programs that illustrate the various parts of Soar's structure. They will also be introduced to Soar’s editing, debugging, and runtime tools. In the afternoon, we will work on simple agents that interact with a dynamic simulated environment. The students will build their own complete agents that navigate and compete in a simple maze world. The class will culminate with a competition among the agents designed by students.