Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach Jean-Arcady Meyer Commentator on the growth of the field. Animats: artificial animals anima-materials Coined.

Evolutionary Robotics

The French ApproachJean-Arcady Meyer

Commentator on the growthof the field.

Animats: artificial animalsanima-materials

Coined by S.W. Wilson in 1991

Meyer:

International ConferenceEvery two years:

From Animals to Animats: The International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior

http://www.isab.org.uk/confs/sab98.php


The French Approach

“The Animat Approach toCognitive Science”

Jean-Arcady Meyer

in

Comparative Approaches toCognitive Science (1995),

edited by

Roitblat and Meyer.

“A major focus in cognitive science has been on modeling the performance of tasks that are characteristic of human intelligence, such as

“On the other hand, several investigators have recently suggested the possibility of a complementary comparative approach to cognitive science that seeks to determine in what respect faculties found only in man can be traced to the simplest adaptive processes inherited from animals.”

(p. 27)


The French Approach


Jean-Arcady Meyer

in


edited by

Roitblat and Meyer.

“…animats are modeled as whole, albeit simple, organisms in real environmenst that are performing real biological tasks like exploring, mating, feeding, or escaping predators.”

“…they often can improve their adaptive capabilities through individual learning or by means of an evolutionary process involved several successive generations.”

(p. 27)


The French Approach


Jean-Arcady Meyer

in


edited by

Roitblat and Meyer.

Three categories for animat research:

1. “behaviors have been entirely preprogrammed by their creator,

animats whose behaviors may be altered…

2. by processes that mimic individual learning or

3. collective evolution.”

(p. 28)


The French Approach


Jean-Arcady Meyer

in


edited by

Roitblat and Meyer.

Three categories for animat research:1. “behaviors have been entirely preprogrammed by their creator… (p. 28)

Several decisions about cognitive architecture:

More complicated as task becomes more difficult?

Centralized or distributed?

Which components should be mobilizedunder what conditions?


The French Approach


Jean-Arcady Meyer

in


edited by

Roitblat and Meyer.


“Neuroethological approach”:simulate what is known aboutneuron function, andneural architectures in animals.

Beer (1990): Walking in hexapods:


The French Approach



“Neuroethological approach”:

Beer (1990): Walking in hexapods:

“If foot down, apply stance neuron force; otherwise, apply swing neuron force.”


The French Approach




Beer (1990): Eating in hexapods:

Behavior?


The French Approach





Behavior?

If energy low, inhibition is low,so “feeding arousal” neuron fires.

Strengthen the amount of turning toward a food source.

If chemical sensed on right, turn right.If chemical sensed on left, suppress

turning toward the right.


The French Approach





Behavior? Behavior?


The French Approach




Beer (1990): Putting it all together:

Beh

avio

rs

Sensory states

What does mutual inhibition do in this case?


The French Approach


Three categories for animat research:2. “by processes that mimic individual learning”

(p. 28)

Reinforcement learning:Which actions to perform in order to maximizean external gain?

Z = reinforcementsignal

Klopf (1980)


The French Approach


Three categories for animat research:2. “collective evolution.”

(p. 28)

Koza (1992):

Evolve a robot capable offollowing the edge of a maze.


The French Approach



(p. 28)

Koza (1992):MSD: Minimum safe distance

(2.0)EDG: Edging; preferred

distance from edge(2.3)

SS: Shortest sonar

PROGN2: Execute twosubtrees, returnvalue of second one.

IFLTE, if value returned byfirst subtreeis less than or equal tosecond subtree,return value of 3rd s.t.;elsereturn value of 4th s.t.



(p. 28)

Koza (1992):

The French Approach



(p. 28)

Koza (1992):

The French Approach

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach Jean-Arcady Meyer Commentator on the growth of the field. Animats: artificial animals anima-materials Coined.

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