Football game coursework, I need help writing a script.

Im writing the script for a player who needs to move to wherever the ball is on the pitch which will change through out the game. I just need him to chase the ball and stay on the pitch and I don't really know where to start with it any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[Sean de Wolski]

Does he change course if a rookie New England defender intercepts on the 1/2 yard line with 18s left?

[James Tursa]

Ouch ... that hurt ... again ...

[John D'Errico]

Were I a betting man, my bet would be that the reference to pitch suggests it is a different kind of football indicated here.

[Jack Johnson]

Yeah im talking UK football

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

The most sophisticated solution is likely a Kalman filter. However, I would start instead with a relatively simple Pursuit curve solution. This would likely be much easier to implement.

[Jack Johnson]

That looks like the right thing I just really don't know where to start on writing the script but thanks for the help

[Star Strider]

My pleasure!

I doubt that an analytic solution would be appropriate, since the trajectory of the football is always changing. (If you have the Symbolic Math Toolbox, that might where to start, though, to give you some idea of how the differential equation solves the pursuit problem in a simple system. Use matlabFunction to create an anonymous function so you can see it outside of the Symbolic Math Toolbox, and so without all that Toolbox’s computational overhead.)

You likely need to explore the various ODE solvers to determine the best one for your simulation. I would start with ode45, and use the ‘Events’ structure to determine when the ball or player goes out-of-bounds. You will likely use ode15s, since it is much more robust in ‘stiff’ problems, and this could be one such.

It seems to me that this is quite complicated, although for a simple trajectory it might be easy. If it gets involved, you might consider searching out the solutions video game developers use, and how the various video game engines handle those problems. At least in your simulation, you likely don’t have to worry about the offsides rule!