Using robots to understand social behaviour.

A major challenge in studying social behaviour stems from the need to disentangle the behaviour of each individual from the resulting collective. One way to overcome this problem is to construct a model of the behaviour of an individual, and observe whether combining many such individuals leads to the predicted outcome. This can be achieved by using robots. In this review we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of such an approach for studies of social behaviour. We find that robots-whether studied in groups of simulated or physical robots, or used to infiltrate and manipulate groups of living organisms-have important advantages over conventional individual-based models and have contributed greatly to the study of social behaviour. In particular, robots have increased our understanding of self-organization and the evolution of cooperative behaviour and communication. However, the resulting findings have not had the desired impact on the biological community. We suggest reasons for why this may be the case, and how the benefits of using robots can be maximized in future research on social behaviour.

Lettre à Louis XIV / Fénelon, aut.. Le riche et le pauvre / La Bruyère, aut.

[Méthode de langue (français)]

Historical contingency affects signaling strategies and competitive abilities in evolving populations of simulated robots.

One of the key innovations during the evolution of life on earth has been the emergence of efficient communication systems, yet little is known about the causes and consequences of the great diversity within and between species. By conducting experimental evolution in 20 independently evolving populations of cooperatively foraging simulated robots, we found that historical contingency in the occurrence order of novel phenotypic traits resulted in the emergence of two distinct communication strategies. The more complex foraging strategy was less efficient than the simpler strategy. However, when the 20 populations were placed in competition with each other, the populations with the more complex strategy outperformed the populations with the less complex strategy. These results demonstrate a tradeoff between communication efficiency and robustness and suggest that stochastic events have important effects on signal evolution and the outcome of competition between distinct populations.

[Archives de la Parole]. , Aldghier Junior : Monologi de Eduardo Garrito dito pelo Actor Valle / Eduardo Garrito, aut. ; Actor Valle, voix

Portugais

Learning and adaptation in physical heterogeneous teams of robots

In this paper we present a novel approach to assigning roles to robots in a team of physical heterogeneous robots. Its members compete for these roles and get rewards for them. The rewards are used to determine each agent’s preferences and which agents are better adapted to the environment. These aspects are included in the decision making process. Agent interactions are modelled using the concept of an ecosystem in which each robot is a species, resulting in emergent behaviour of the whole set of agents. One of the most important features of this approach is its high adaptability. Unlike some other learning techniques, this approach does not need to start a whole exploitation process when the environment changes. All this is exemplified by means of experiments run on a simulator. In addition, the algorithm developed was applied as applied to several teams of robots in order to analyse the impact of heterogeneity in these systems

[Illustration de La navigation du Capitaine Martin Forbischer... régions de West et de Nord-West en l'année 1577] / [Non identifié] ; Martin Forbischer, aut. du texte

Comprend : [Planche dépliante à la fin du livre]. Le portraict des trois sauvages admenez en Angleterre, leurs habits, armes, tentes et bateaux. [Représentation des moeurs et coutumes, costumes traditionnels des habitants du Grand Nord?] [Cote : BNF C104

[Illustration de Le Voyage de Monsieur Lautrec] / [Non identifié] ; J. de Forges, aut. du texte

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[Illustrations de Histoire de Berry] / [Non identifié] ; Jean Chaumeau, aut. du texte

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