Evolution of Altruistic Robots

In this document we examine the evolutionary methods that may lead to the emergence of altruistic cooperation in robot collectives. We present four evolutionary algorithms that derive from biological theories on the evolution of altruism in nature and compare them systematically in two experimental scenarios where altruistic cooperation can lead to a performance increment. We discuss the relative merits and drawbacks of the four methods and provide recommendations for the choice of the most suitable method for evolving altruistic robots.

[1]  Peter Delves,et al.  Encyclopedia of life sciences , 2009 .

[2]  M. Surette,et al.  Communication in bacteria: an ecological and evolutionary perspective , 2006, Nature Reviews Microbiology.

[3]  Michel Chapuisat,et al.  Eusociality and Cooperation , 2010 .

[4]  E. Wilson,et al.  Sociobiology: The New Synthesis , 1975 .

[5]  D. Floreano,et al.  Evolutionary Conditions for the Emergence of Communication in Robots , 2007, Current Biology.

[6]  L. Keller,et al.  The evolution of cooperation and altruism – a general framework and a classification of models , 2006, Journal of evolutionary biology.

[7]  J. M. Smith.  Group Selection and Kin Selection , 1964, Nature.

[8]  C. Baray,et al.  Evolving cooperation via communication in homogeneous multi-agent systems , 1997, Proceedings Intelligent Information Systems. IIS'97.

[9]  M. Nowak,et al.  Evolution of indirect reciprocity , 2005, Nature.

[10]  Stefano Nolfi,et al.  Coordination and Behaviour Integration in Cooperating Simulated Robots , 2004 .

[11]  R. Lewontin.  ‘The Selfish Gene’ , 1977, Nature.

[12]  A. Griffin,et al.  Communication in bacteria , 2008 .

[13]  W. Hamilton.  The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I. , 1964, Journal of theoretical biology.

[14]  Marco Dorigo,et al.  Cooperative hole avoidance in a swarm-bot , 2006, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[15]  Amots Zehavi,et al.  The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle , 1997 .

[16]  M. Nowak,et al.  Evolution of indirect reciprocity by image scoring , 1998, Nature.

[17]  Eörs Szathmáry,et al.  Multicellularity: Evolution and the egg , 2002, Nature.

[18]  Guy Theraulaz,et al.  Response Threshold Model of Division of Labour in a Ponerine Ant , 1999 .

[19]  Eric Bonabeau.  The handicap principle , 1998, Complex..

[20]  L. Darrell Whitley,et al.  Evolving cooperative strategies for UAV teams , 2005, GECCO '05.

[21]  Sean Luke,et al.  Cooperative Multi-Agent Learning: The State of the Art , 2005, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[22]  Lincoln Smith,et al.  Evolving teamwork and role-allocation with real robots , 2002 .

[23]  E. Wilson.  Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition , 2000 .

[24]  John J. Grefenstette,et al.  Credit assignment in rule discovery systems based on genetic algorithms , 1988, Machine Learning.

[25]  J. Thoday.  Population Genetics , 1956, Nature.

[26]  N. Franks,et al.  Social Evolution in Ants , 2019 .

[27]  Luca Maria Gambardella,et al.  c ○ 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Manufactured in The Netherlands. Swarm-Bot: A New Distributed Robotic Concept , 2022 .

[28]  E. Wilson.  The Insect Societies , 1974 .

[29]  Dario Floreano,et al.  Genetic Team Composition and Level of Selection in the Evolution of Cooperation , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.

[30]  Stefano Nolfi,et al.  Evolving Mobile Robots Able to Display Collective Behaviors , 2003, Artificial Life.

[31]  R. Michod.  Darwinian Dynamics: Evolutionary Transitions in Fitness and Individuality , 1999 .

[32]  Risto Miikkulainen,et al.  Neuroevolution for adaptive teams , 2003, The 2003 Congress on Evolutionary Computation, 2003. CEC '03..

[33]  V. Wynne-Edwards.  Evolution Through Group Selection , 1986 .

[34]  Marvin Minsky,et al.  Steps toward Artificial Intelligence , 1995, Proceedings of the IRE.

[35]  James A. Hendler,et al.  Co-evolving Soccer Softbot Team Coordination with Genetic Programming , 1997, RoboCup.

[36]  E. Bonabeau,et al.  The geographical spread of influenza , 1998, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.