Mar. 6 (Thursday) John Long (Vassar College)
Evolutionary Biorobotics: Creating Simulated Vertebrates to Test Adaptation Hypotheses
Abstract:
Ancient fish-like vertebrates evolved features — bony vertebrae, high-aspect-ratio tails, and expansive lateral lines — that we see linked in living species with active, predatory ecologies. While it is tempting to assume that current functions are those that were originally selected, we know that adaptations are routinely altered, co-opted, or reversed. To provide an alternative method to model possible adaptation scenarios, we evolve autonomous, free-swimming, biomimetic robots. Using a predator-prey ecology, individuals in our population of prey robots are selected for behavior that enhances foraging, swimming speed, ability to stay away from the predator, and escape performance when the predator gives chase. The phenotypes that evolve — vertebrae, tails, and lateral lines — are genetically independent, and are subject to selection, mutation, and drift. Our initial results suggest that the adaptive landscape for these simple, simulated vertebrates is complex, allowing many possible evolutionary trajectories.