A model of cooperative agent based on imitation and Maslow´s Pyramid of needs

Recent works have addressed the problem of imitation in the framework of the interactions between two agents, whether humans or robots. We develop a model aiming at improving the self-organization of population of robots by relying on imitation. Imitations between the robots are regulated by a very simple model of emotional expression. The model is tested in the context of a simple task for the robots: to explore their environment to localize sources needed for their survival. Following a biology-inspired approach, imitation has been introduced within a population of autonomous agents, as bidirectional social needs, in line with the Maslow´s pyramid of needs (1943). In our model, imitation is integrated into a global architecture based on artificial neural networks. Running our simple and scalable model resulted in a significant increase of the population´s survival rate and a decrease of the global amount of the average necessary movements of each agent.