An artificial visual cortex drives behavioral evolution in co-evolved predator and prey robots

摘要

Using a rule-based system for growing artificial neural networks [1], we have evolved controllers for physically simulated 18-degree-of-freedom robotic "spiders". These robots previously evolved "galloping" gaits and tracked a compass heading. Here, we introduce an artificial "visual cortex" that permits distinct predator and prey species to "see" one another. It has been claimed [2] that the "Cambrian explosion" of evolutionary diversity was due the emergence of animal eyes, which created a new dynamic in the interaction between predators and prey. The survival of both was for the first time determined by interactions between animals some distance apart. Here, we find that the introduction of vision does indeed generate complex interactions both between and within the two species, as they species evolve complex hunting or avoidance behavior, modulating their galloping gaits with dynamic input from their visual systems.