Adaptive Behavior in Competing Co-Evolving Species

Co-evolution of competitive species provides an interesting testbed to study the role of adaptive behavior because it provides unpredictable and dynamic environments. In this paper we experimentally investigate some arguments for the co-evolution of di erent adaptive protean behaviors in competing species of predators and preys. Both species are implemented as simulated mobile robots (Kheperas) with infrared proximity sensors, but the predator has an additional vision module whereas the prey has a maximum speed set to twice that of the predator. Di erent types of variability during life for neurocontrollers with the same architecture and genetic length are compared. It is shown that simple forms of proteanism a ect co-evolutionary dynamics and that preys rather exploit noisy controllers to generate random trajectories, whereas predators benet from directional-change controllers to improve pursuit behavior.

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