An Extensible and Modular Design and Implementation of Monte Carlo Tree Search for the JVM

Abstract

Flexible implementations of Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), combined with domain specific knowledge and hybridization with other search algorithms, can be powerful for finding the solutions to problems in complex planning. We introduce mctreesearch4j, an MCTS implementation written as a standard JVM library following key design principles of object oriented programming. We define key class abstractions allowing the MCTS library to flexibly adapt to any well defined Markov Decision Process or turn-based adversarial game. Furthermore, our library is designed to be modular and extensible, utilizing class inheritance and generic typing to standardize custom algorithm definitions. We demonstrate that the design of the MCTS implementation provides ease of adaptation for unique heuristics and customization across varying Markov Decision Process (MDP) domains. In addition, the implementation is reasonably performant and accurate for standard MDP's. In addition, via the implementation of mctreesearch4j, the nuances of different types of MCTS algorithms are discussed.