A Straight Approach to Planning for 14.1 Billiards

In this work, we take a closer look at the difficulties inherent to the creation of AI for the game of Straight Billiards (14.1 continuous). We begin by establishing the key components that make this variant of billiards interesting in regard to past work on the game of Eight-Ball. We then address each of these components by decomposing the problem into two aspects: optimal control and planning. A new model for the optimal control of the cue ball to break clusters in between games is presented, as well as a model for the execution of defensive shots. We follow with a short discussion on the importance of planning carefully when only a few balls remain on the table and propose a planning approach based on an analysis of the table state to select the sequence of balls to pocket on the table. Results are finally presented and analyzed, followed by a discussion on future work.