research-article

Digital enzymes: agents of reaction inside robotic controllers for the foraging problem

Authors:

Betty H.C. Cheng,

Philip K. McKinleyAuthors Info & Claims

GECCO '11: Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation

Pages 243 - 250

https://doi.org/10.1145/2001576.2001610

Published: 12 July 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Over billions of years, natural selection has continued to select for a framework based on (1) parallelism and (2) cooperation across various levels of organization within organisms to drive their behaviors and responses. We present a design for a bottom-up, reactive controller where the agent's response emerges from many parallelized, enzymatic interactions (bottom-up) within the biologically-inspired process of signal transduction (reactive). We use enzymes to explore the potential for evolving simulated robot controllers for the central-place foraging problem. The properties of the robot and stimuli present in its environment are encoded in a digital format ("molecule") capable of being manipulated and altered through self-contained computational programs ("enzymes") executing in parallel inside each controller to produce the robot's foraging behavior. Evaluation of this design in unbounded worlds reveals evolved strategies employing one or more of the following complex behaviors: (1) swarming, (2) coordinated movement, (3) communication of concepts using a primitive language based on sound and color, (4) cooperation, and (5) division of labor.

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Cited By

Lalejini AOfria CTakadama K(2018)Evolving event-driven programs with SignalGPProceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference10.1145/3205455.3205523(1135-1142)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3205455.3205523
Byers CCheng BMcKinley PMoore J(2012)Exploring the evolution of internal control structure using digital enzymesProceedings of the 14th annual conference companion on Genetic and evolutionary computation10.1145/2330784.2330956(1407-1408)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2330784.2330956

Index Terms

Digital enzymes: agents of reaction inside robotic controllers for the foraging problem
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
    1. Control methods
    2. Search methodologies
2. Theory of computation
  1. Design and analysis of algorithms
    1. Algorithm design techniques
      1. Dynamic programming

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cover image ACM Conferences

GECCO '11: Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation

July 2011

2140 pages

ISBN:9781450305570

DOI:10.1145/2001576

Editor:
Natalio Krasnogor
University of Nottingham, UK
,
General Chair:
Pier Luca Lanzi
Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

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Published: 12 July 2011

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GECCO '11: Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference

July 12 - 16, 2011

Dublin, Ireland

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Cited By

Lalejini AOfria CTakadama K(2018)Evolving event-driven programs with SignalGPProceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference10.1145/3205455.3205523(1135-1142)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3205455.3205523
Byers CCheng BMcKinley PMoore J(2012)Exploring the evolution of internal control structure using digital enzymesProceedings of the 14th annual conference companion on Genetic and evolutionary computation10.1145/2330784.2330956(1407-1408)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2330784.2330956

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