US Patent 7837543 Reward-driven adaptive agents for video games

Adaptive agents are driven by rewards they receive based on the outcome of their behavior during actual game play. Accordingly, the adaptive agents are able to learn from experience within the gaming environment. Reward-driven adaptive agents can be trained at either or both of game-time or development time. Computer-controlled agents receive rewards (either positive or negative) at individual action intervals based on the effectiveness of the agents' actions (e.g., compliance with defined goals). The adaptive computer-controlled agent is motivated to perform actions that maximize its positive rewards and minimize is negative rewards.