Work

How to Make Swarms Open-Ended? Evolving Collective Intelligence Through a Constricted Exploration of Adjacent Possibles

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: We propose an approach to open-ended evolution via the simulation of swarm dynamics. In nature, swarms possess remarkable properties, which allow many organisms, from swarming bacteria to ants and flocking birds, to form higher-order structures that enhance their behavior as a group. Swarm simulations highlight three important factors to create novelty and diversity: (a) communication generates combinatorial cooperative dynamics, (b) concurrency allows for separation of time scales, and (c) complexity and size increases push the system towards transitions in innovation. We illustrate these three components in a model computing the continuous evolution of a swarm of agents. The results, divided into three distinct applications, show how emergent structures are capable of filtering information through the bottleneck of their memory, to produce meaningful novelty and diversity within their simulated environment.

Source: Artificial Life

DOI: 10.1162/artl_a_00288

Authors: Olaf Witkowski, Takashi Ikegami

Institutions: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Institute for Advanced Study, Earth-Life Science Institute, The University of Tokyo

Language: English

Topic: Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence

Subfield: Mechanical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Award: Understanding and realization of swarm intelligence based on ethology and theory life sciences