Download coppin chapter 13

Chapter 13
Artificial Life: Learning
through Emergent Behavior
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Chapter 13 Contents (1)
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What is life?
Emergent Behavior
Finite State Automata
Conway’s Life
One-Dimensional Cellular Automata
Self-Reproducing Systems
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Chapter 13 Contents (2)
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Evolution
Evolution Strategies
Genetic Programming
Evolutionary Programming
Classifier Systems
Artificial Immune Systems
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What is life?
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What are the defining features of life?
self-reproduction
ability to evolve by Darwinian natural
selection
response to stimuli
ability to die
growth or expansion
Not all living things obey these rules, and
some things that are not alive do.
Defining life is very difficult!
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Emergent Behavior
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The idea that complex behavior emerges from
simple rules.
Is seen in systems such as CYC, but is
particularly prevalent in systems based on
evolutionary methods, such as genetic
algorithms.
Example:
 Boids – simulations of birds given very simple rules
about how to fly.
 Automatically flew in such a way as to avoid large
obstacles, without being taught explicitly how to do
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so.
Finite State Automata
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FSA: a machine with a
finite number of states.
The FSA is given inputs,
which result in transitions between states.
Some states are accepting, meaning the FSA
is saying “Yes”.
Other states are rejecting.
In this example there are two possible input
characters – a and b, and two states, 1 and 2.
It will finish in state 1 (the accepting state) if
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the input has an even number of a’s.
Conway’s Life (1)
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A two dimensional cellular automaton.
A two dimensional grid of cells, each of which can
be alive or dead.
A set of rules determines how the cells will change
from one generation to the next:
1. A dead cell will come to life if it has three living
neighbors.
2. A living cell with two or three living neighbors,
will stay alive.
3. A living cell with fewer than two living neighbors
will die of loneliness.
4. A living cell with more than three living
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neighbors will die of overcrowding.
Conway’s Life (2)
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Surprisingly complex behavior can sometimes
emerge from these simple rules.
This diagram shows a successive sequence of
generations of Conway’s Life.
This pattern is known as a glider.
There is also a pattern known as a glider gun which
constantly fires out gliders.
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One-Dimensional Cellular Automata (1)
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A single line of cells. Each cell thus has two
immediate neighbors.
It is usual to have rules that take into account the
cells on either side of the immediate neighbors as
well.
Usually, the cell itself is also taken into account,
meaning that each cell’s future is determined by 5
cells.
1-D Cellular Automata often use totalistic rules,
meaning that the number of living cells out of the
5 is all that determines the cell’s state in the next
generation.
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One-Dimensional Cellular Automata (2)
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Hence, there are 32 possible rule sets. One such
set of rules might be:
1 2
3
4
5
0 0
1
1
1
This says a cell can only survive if it has two, three
or four neighbors.
This rule can be seen applied in five generations in
the following diagram:
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Self-Reproducing Systems
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Von Neumann proposed a self-reproducing
system based on cellular automata.
Langton invented loops:
 Each loop consists of 94 cells.
 Contains all the information that is needed to
reproduce itself.
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Ultimately we may have robots that can
obtain the raw materials necessary to
produce new versions of themselves.
This would be useful for exploring other
planets.
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Evolution
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The changes in cellular automata involve
single-step selection, while evolutionary
systems involve cumulative selection
(Dawkins, 1991).
Survival of the fittest means that creatures
that are fit are more likely to reproduce
than those that are less fit.
This idea is modeled exactly in systems
such as genetic algorithms.
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Evolution Strategies
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Similar to hill-climbing.
A set of numeric parameters is varied from
generation to generation by making normally
distributed changes to the values.
If the offspring is a better solution than the
parent, then the process repeats from the
offspring.
Otherwise, the offspring is rejected, and a new
attempt is made.
This is asexual reproduction – a single parent
produces a single offspring.
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Genetic Programming
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A method used to evolve LISP S-expressions.
The S-expressions are represented as trees.
A random set of expressions is generated,
and the “fittest” individuals reproduce to
produce the next generation.
Mutation and crossover are used (see chapter
14).
Diagram shows an example
of a tree representation of an
S-expression.
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Evolutionary Programming
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Evolves finite state automata to solve the problem
of identifying the next item in a sequence:
a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, …, an.
A new generation of FSAs is made by applying a
set of mutation operators:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Changing an output symbol
Changing a state transition
Adding a state
Deleting a state
Changing the initial state
The success of an FSA is determined by seeing
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how well it predicts the existing sequence.
Classifier Systems (1)
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An evolutionary expert system.
Has the following components:
 Detectors which receive inputs from the environment.
 Effectors which send outputs and carry out actions.
 A rule system, which consists of a population of classifiers.
Each rule has a measure of fitness.
 Detectors to determine how well the system is performing.
 A bucket brigade algorithm for assigning credit and blame to
classifiers.
 A procedure for reproducing classifiers by application of a set
of genetic operators.
 A set of message lists – for input, output and internal
messages.
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Classifier Systems (2)
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The system uses classifiers to determine what outputs to
produce, or what actions to carry out depending on the
inputs from the environment.
A classifier has the following form:
(c1, c2, c3, c4, c5) -> M, f
c1 … c5 are the input variables; M is the output or action
and f is the fitness of the classifier.
An example classifier might be:
(4, 2, *, 1, *) -> A2, 9.1
* represents any input.
This rule states that an input that has 4, 2 and 1 in the first
second and fourth positions is classified as A2, and that the
classifier has a fitness value of 9.1.
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Classifier Systems (3)
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When a system has classified an input, a new
generation of classifiers is produced by allowing
the classifiers that provided the best
classifications to reproduce.
A bucket-brigade algorithm is used to assign
credit (or blame) to the classifiers.
Classifier systems can be used to solve a
number of problems, including playing games
and enabling a virtual robot to explore a virtual
terrain.
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Artificial Immune Systems
Systems modeled on the immune
systems in humans and other
biological creatures.
 Used in anti-virus systems, for
example.
 Also applied in computer security, for
solving combinatorial problems, and
for machine learning problems.
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