Abstract
Theoretical approaches to the problem of action selection in autonomous agents often contrast centralised and distributed selection schemes. Here we describe a neural substrate for distributed action selection in the vertebrate brain-stem, the medial reticular formation (mRF), which may form a evolutionary precursor to centralised schemes found in the higher brain. We evaluate its competence as a selection device for robot control in a simulated resource co-ordination task, and use a genetic algorithm to evolve the mRF’s inputs and internal structure. Some configurations of the mRF could sufficiently co-ordinate actions to maximise the robot’s energy, but this is critically dependent on a high rate of energy acquisition, which leaves an animal (or agent) susceptible to food shortages. Thus, the inflexibility of the mRF as a distributed selection mechanism may have provided impetus for the evolution of more complex, centralised, selection mechanisms in the brain.
This research was supported by the EPSRC (GR/R95722/01), a Wellcome Trust VIP Award, and the European Union Framework 6 ICEA project.
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Humphries, M., Prescott, T. (2006). Distributed Action Selection by a Brainstem Neural Substrate: An Embodied Evaluation. In: Nolfi, S., et al. From Animals to Animats 9. SAB 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4095. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11840541_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11840541_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-38608-7
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