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Artificial Growth and Developmental Plasticity |
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We have developed a new model of combined
artificial evolution and growth in order to generate robots that exhibit
interesting behaviours. Genomes encode genetic regulatory networks, which set
of a set of a dynamical processes that transform a starting seed into a fully
functioning, behaving robot. Our earlier models also included growth, but the
growth programs of the robots were insensitive to environmental cues. Plants
are an extreme, and instructive example of how nature combines genetic and
environmental factors (in the case of plants, this includes light levels,
hydrostatic pressure and soil chemistry) in order to produce a functioning
organism. In our new model, environmental cues such as pressure and joint
stress are transduced into regulatory chemicals, which can influence gene
action. However, artificial evolution is not forced to produce genomes which
respond to these chemicals: selection pressure may generate robots that grow
based on a purely genetic developmental programme. However, in most of our
initial experiments, selection pressure does produce genomes that exploit
these signals, and use them to direct growth.
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bongard@ifi.unizh.ch |
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