Darwinbots
Encyclopedia
DarwinBots is an open source
artificial life
simulator, originally developed by Carlo Comis, providing a virtual environment in which a number of digital organism
s called "bots" interact, fight for resources, and eventually reproduce and evolve.
that control the behavior of an individual "bot". Each gene has a trigger for its activation, a body that dictates gene function, and an end marker. Darwinbots does not simulate intermediate information carriers or effectors (RNA or proteins) and gene interactions are minimal. Individuals with similar DNA recognize each other as relatives.
Each bot has an energy level which increases through feeding, and decreases through activating an encoded action. Metabolism is simulated with this consumption of energy and production of waste. A bot may die if its energy too low or the waste around them is too high. Efficiency of energy and waste management is the main selective
mechanism for evolution. In addition, feeding requires a combination of vision, movement, target recognition and attack.
6. An effort was made to port Darwinbots's code from Visual Basic to C++
, but this port has been abandoned and now a C# port is being developed. Progress is somewhat slow, however, and the Visual Basic program is still being updated and new features being added.
The design principles of Darwinbots were:
Darwinbots gives the organisms comparatively high level tools, and sees if they can form even more complex behaviors from these. Darwinbots does not attempt to evaluate the fitness of individual organisms at all, and gives energy uniformly to organisms deemed plants at the start of the simulation and their descendants. Since there is no external fitness function, there is no single metric of fitness; rather, fitness varies according to organisms' adaptation to local environments.
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
artificial life
Artificial life
Artificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...
simulator, originally developed by Carlo Comis, providing a virtual environment in which a number of digital organism
Digital organism
A digital organism is a self-replicating computer program that mutates and evolves. Digital organisms are used as a tool to study the dynamics of Darwinian evolution, and to test or verify specific hypotheses or mathematical models of evolution...
s called "bots" interact, fight for resources, and eventually reproduce and evolve.
Simulation
Darwinbots simulates genesGênes
Gênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy, named after the city of Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa, and it was divided in the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...
that control the behavior of an individual "bot". Each gene has a trigger for its activation, a body that dictates gene function, and an end marker. Darwinbots does not simulate intermediate information carriers or effectors (RNA or proteins) and gene interactions are minimal. Individuals with similar DNA recognize each other as relatives.
Each bot has an energy level which increases through feeding, and decreases through activating an encoded action. Metabolism is simulated with this consumption of energy and production of waste. A bot may die if its energy too low or the waste around them is too high. Efficiency of energy and waste management is the main selective
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
mechanism for evolution. In addition, feeding requires a combination of vision, movement, target recognition and attack.
Development history
Darwinbots is developed in Visual BasicVisual Basic
Visual Basic is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment from Microsoft for its COM programming model...
6. An effort was made to port Darwinbots's code from Visual Basic to C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
, but this port has been abandoned and now a C# port is being developed. Progress is somewhat slow, however, and the Visual Basic program is still being updated and new features being added.
The design principles of Darwinbots were:
- All bots have their own semi-protected address space. Other bots can modify this, but it is an aggressive action to do so, proximity is required, and there are counter measures to protect against it.
- All bots execute their entire DNA code once per cycle, rather than a single code being activated per cycle.
- The bots' world is a non discrete flat plane. That is, bots are not segmented into grids as in cellular automata.
- Every bot is equipped with a set of basic, but high level abilities, addressed through specific memory locations called sysvars, which allow it to interact with the world. These sysvars are things such as "accelerate forward a set amount" or "fire a connective tie".
Darwinbots gives the organisms comparatively high level tools, and sees if they can form even more complex behaviors from these. Darwinbots does not attempt to evaluate the fitness of individual organisms at all, and gives energy uniformly to organisms deemed plants at the start of the simulation and their descendants. Since there is no external fitness function, there is no single metric of fitness; rather, fitness varies according to organisms' adaptation to local environments.
Reviews
The Science Advisory Board commented that the Darwinbots software could be developed into a model of complex interactions amongst cells, tissues and organs: "Normal and pathological physiology could be re-thought as inter-specific relationships."See also
- Digital organismDigital organismA digital organism is a self-replicating computer program that mutates and evolves. Digital organisms are used as a tool to study the dynamics of Darwinian evolution, and to test or verify specific hypotheses or mathematical models of evolution...
- Artificial lifeArtificial lifeArtificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...
- List of other Alife Simulators