Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach Jean-Arcady Meyer Commentator on the growth of the field. Animats: artificial animals anima-materials Coined by S.W. Wilson in 1991 Meyer: International Conference Every two years: From Animals to Animats: The International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Jean-Arcady Meyer in Comparative Approaches to Cognitive 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)

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Jean-Arcady Meyer in Comparative Approaches to Cognitive Science (1995), 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)

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Jean-Arcady Meyer in Comparative Approaches to Cognitive Science (1995), 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)

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Jean-Arcady Meyer in Comparative Approaches to Cognitive Science (1995), 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 mobilized under what conditions?

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Jean-Arcady Meyer in Comparative Approaches to Cognitive Science (1995), edited by Roitblat and Meyer. Three categories for animat research: 1. “behaviors have been entirely preprogrammed by their creator… (p. 28) “Neuroethological approach”: simulate what is known about neuron function, and neural architectures in animals. Beer (1990): Walking in hexapods:

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Three categories for animat research: 1. “behaviors have been entirely preprogrammed by their creator… (p. 28) “Neuroethological approach”: Beer (1990): Walking in hexapods: “If foot down, apply stance neuron force; otherwise, apply swing neuron force.”

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Three categories for animat research: 1. “behaviors have been entirely preprogrammed by their creator… (p. 28) “Neuroethological approach”: Beer (1990): Eating in hexapods: Behavior?

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Three categories for animat research: 1. “behaviors have been entirely preprogrammed by their creator… (p. 28) “Neuroethological approach”: Beer (1990): Eating in hexapods: 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.

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Three categories for animat research: 1. “behaviors have been entirely preprogrammed by their creator… (p. 28) “Neuroethological approach”: Beer (1990): Eating in hexapods: Behavior?

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Three categories for animat research: 1. “behaviors have been entirely preprogrammed by their creator… (p. 28) “Neuroethological approach”: Beer (1990): Putting it all together: Behaviors Sensory states What does mutual inhibition do in this case?

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Three categories for animat research: 2. “by processes that mimic individual learning” (p. 28) Reinforcement learning: Which actions to perform in order to maximize an external gain? Z = reinforcement signal Klopf (1980)

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Three categories for animat research: 2. “collective evolution.” (p. 28) Koza (1992): Evolve a robot capable of following the edge of a maze.

Evolutionary Robotics The French Approach “The Animat Approach to Cognitive Science” Three categories for animat research: 2. “collective evolution.” (p. 28) Koza (1992): MSD: Minimum safe distance (2.0) EDG: Edging; preferred distance from edge (2.3) SS: Shortest sonar PROGN2: Execute two subtrees, return value of second one. IFLTE, if value returned by first subtree is less than or equal to second subtree, return value of 3 rd s.t.; else return value of 4 th s.t.

Evolutionary Robotics Three categories for animat research: 2. “collective evolution.” (p. 28) Koza (1992): The French Approach

Evolutionary Robotics Three categories for animat research: 2. “collective evolution.” (p. 28) Koza (1992): The French Approach