Intelligent Agents for Active Malware Analysis

The main contribution of this thesis is to give a novel perspective on Active Malware Analysis modeled as a decision making process between intelligent agents. We propose solutions aimed at extracting the behaviors of malware agents with advanced Artificial Intelligence techniques. In particular, we devise novel action selection strategies for the analyzer agents that allow to analyze malware by selecting sequences of triggering actions aimed at maximizing the information acquired. The goal is to create informative models representing the behaviors of the malware agents observed while interacting with them during the analysis process. Such models can then be used to effectively compare a malware against others and to correctly identify the malware famil

Docitive Networks. A Step Beyond Cognition

Projecte fet en col.laboració amb Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de CatalunyaCatalà: En les Xarxes Docents es por ta més enllà la idea d'elaborar decisions intel ligents. Per mitjà de compartir informació entre els nodes, amb l'objectiu primordial de reduir la complexitat i millorar el rendiment de les Xarxes Cognitives. Per a això es revisen alguns conceptes importants de les bases de l'Aprenentatge Automàtic, prestant especial atenció a l'aprenentatge per reforç. També es fa una visió de la Teoria de Jocs Evolutius i de la dinàmica de rèpliques. Finalment, simulacions ,basades en el projecte TIC-BUNGEE, es mostren per validar els conceptes introduïts.Castellano: Las Redes Docentes llevan más alla la idea de elaborar decisiones inteligentes, por medio de compartir información entre los nodos, con el objetivo primordial de reducir la complejidad y mejorar el rendimiento de las Redes Cognitiva. Para ello se revisan algunos conceptos importantes de las bases del Aprendizaje Automático, prestando especial atencion al aprendizaje por refuerzo, también damos una visón de la Teoría de Juegos Evolutivos y de la replicación de dinamicas. Por último, las simulaciones basadas en el proyecto TIC-BUNGEE se muestran para validar los conceptos introducidos.English: The Docitive Networks further use the idea of drawing intelligent decisions by means of sharing information between nodes with the prime aim of reduce complexity and enhance performance of Congnitive Networks. To this end we review some important concepts form Machine Learning, paying special atention to Reinforcement Learning, we also go insight Evolutionary Game Theory and Replicator Dynamics. Finally, simulations Based on ICT-BUNGEE project are shown to validate the introduced concepts

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications

Exploiting Opponent Modeling For Learning In Multi-agent Adversarial Games

An issue with learning effective policies in multi-agent adversarial games is that the size of the search space can be prohibitively large when the actions of both teammates and opponents are considered simultaneously. Opponent modeling, predicting an opponent’s actions in advance of execution, is one approach for selecting actions in adversarial settings, but it is often performed in an ad hoc way. In this dissertation, we introduce several methods for using opponent modeling, in the form of predictions about the players’ physical movements, to learn team policies. To explore the problem of decision-making in multi-agent adversarial scenarios, we use our approach for both offline play generation and real-time team response in the Rush 2008 American football simulator. Simultaneously predicting the movement trajectories, future reward, and play strategies of multiple players in real-time is a daunting task but we illustrate how it is possible to divide and conquer this problem with an assortment of data-driven models. By leveraging spatio-temporal traces of player movements, we learn discriminative models of defensive play for opponent modeling. With the reward information from previous play matchups, we use a modified version of UCT (Upper Conference Bounds applied to Trees) to create new offensive plays and to learn play repairs to counter predicted opponent actions. iii In team games, players must coordinate effectively to accomplish tasks while foiling their opponents either in a preplanned or emergent manner. An effective team policy must generate the necessary coordination, yet considering all possibilities for creating coordinating subgroups is computationally infeasible. Automatically identifying and preserving the coordination between key subgroups of teammates can make search more productive by pruning policies that disrupt these relationships. We demonstrate that combining opponent modeling with automatic subgroup identification can be used to create team policies with a higher average yardage than either the baseline game or domain-specific heuristics

Study of decentralised decision models in distributed environments

Many of today's complex systems require effective decision making within uncertain distributed environments. The central theme of the thesis considers the systematic analysis for the representation of decision making organisations. The basic concept of stochastic learning automata provides a framework for modelling decision making in complex systems. Models of interactive decision making are discussed, which result from interconnecting decision makers in both synchronous and sequential configurations. The concepts and viewpoints from learning theory and game theory are used to explain the behaviour of these structures. This work is then extended by presenting a quantitative framework based on Petri Net theory. This formalism provides a powerful means for capturing the information flow in the decision-making process and demonstrating the explicit interactions between decision makers. Additionally, it is also used for the description and analysis of systems that axe characterised as being concurrent, asynchronous, distributed, parallel and/ or stochastic activities. The thesis discusses the limitations of each modelling framework. The thesis proposes an extension to the existing methodologies by presenting a new class of Petri Nets. This extension has resulted in a novel structure which has the additional feature of an embedded stochastic learning automata. An application of this approach to a realistic decision problem demonstrates the impact that the use of an artificial intelligence technique embedded within Petri Nets can have on the performance of decision models

Social based adaptation in multi-agent systems

This work presents a new agent model based in three main topics: emotional psychology (OCC list of emotions), sociology and cognitive psychology (KAI index) and the concept of "opinion" given by the agents. The new model is suitable for implementing adaptation in changing environments, as well as for static ones which are highly unpredictable.García-Pardo Giménez De Los Galanes, JÁ. (2010). Social based adaptation in multi-agent systems. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/13702Archivo delegad