15,418 research outputs found
First Steps Towards a Runtime Comparison of Natural and Artificial Evolution
Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) form a popular optimisation paradigm inspired
by natural evolution. In recent years the field of evolutionary computation has
developed a rigorous analytical theory to analyse their runtime on many
illustrative problems. Here we apply this theory to a simple model of natural
evolution. In the Strong Selection Weak Mutation (SSWM) evolutionary regime the
time between occurrence of new mutations is much longer than the time it takes
for a new beneficial mutation to take over the population. In this situation,
the population only contains copies of one genotype and evolution can be
modelled as a (1+1)-type process where the probability of accepting a new
genotype (improvements or worsenings) depends on the change in fitness.
We present an initial runtime analysis of SSWM, quantifying its performance
for various parameters and investigating differences to the (1+1)EA. We show
that SSWM can have a moderate advantage over the (1+1)EA at crossing fitness
valleys and study an example where SSWM outperforms the (1+1)EA by taking
advantage of information on the fitness gradient
Towards formal models and languages for verifiable Multi-Robot Systems
Incorrect operations of a Multi-Robot System (MRS) may not only lead to
unsatisfactory results, but can also cause economic losses and threats to
safety. These threats may not always be apparent, since they may arise as
unforeseen consequences of the interactions between elements of the system.
This call for tools and techniques that can help in providing guarantees about
MRSs behaviour. We think that, whenever possible, these guarantees should be
backed up by formal proofs to complement traditional approaches based on
testing and simulation.
We believe that tailored linguistic support to specify MRSs is a major step
towards this goal. In particular, reducing the gap between typical features of
an MRS and the level of abstraction of the linguistic primitives would simplify
both the specification of these systems and the verification of their
properties. In this work, we review different agent-oriented languages and
their features; we then consider a selection of case studies of interest and
implement them useing the surveyed languages. We also evaluate and compare
effectiveness of the proposed solution, considering, in particular, easiness of
expressing non-trivial behaviour.Comment: Changed formattin
An evolutionary behavioral model for decision making
For autonomous agents the problem of deciding what to do next becomes increasingly complex when acting in unpredictable and dynamic environments pursuing multiple and possibly conflicting goals. One of the most relevant behavior-based model that tries to deal with this problem is the one proposed by Maes, the Bbehavior Network model. This model proposes a set of behaviors as purposive perception-action units which are linked in a nonhierarchical network, and whose behavior selection process is orchestrated by spreading activation dynamics. In spite of being an adaptive model (in the sense of self-regulating its own behavior selection process), and despite the fact that several extensions have been proposed in order to improve the original model adaptability, there is not a robust model yet that can self-modify adaptively both the topological structure and the functional purpose\ud
of the network as a result of the interaction between the agent and its environment. Thus, this work proffers an innovative hybrid model driven by gene expression programming, which makes two main contributions: (1) given an initial set of meaningless and unconnected units, the evolutionary mechanism is able to build well-defined and robust behavior networks which are adapted and specialized to concrete internal agent's needs and goals; and (2)\ud
the same evolutionary mechanism is able to assemble quite\ud
complex structures such as deliberative plans (which operate in the long-term) and problem-solving strategies
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