DocumentCode :
1485670
Title :
Emergence of Memory in Reactive Agents Equipped With Environmental Markers
Author :
Chung, Ji Ryang ; Choe, Yoonsuck
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Eng., Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX, USA
Volume :
3
Issue :
3
fYear :
2011
Firstpage :
257
Lastpage :
271
Abstract :
In the neuronal circuits of natural and artificial agents, memory is usually implemented with recurrent connections, since recurrence allows past agent state to affect the present, on-going behavior. Here, an interesting question arises in the context of evolution: how reactive agents could have evolved into cognitive ones with internalized memory? Our idea is that reactive agents with simple feedforward circuits could have achieved behavior comparable to internal memory if they can drop and detect external markers (e.g., pheromones or excretions) in the environment. We tested this idea in two tasks (ball-catching and food-foraging task) where agents needed memory to be successful. We evolved feedforward neural network controllers with a dropper and a detector, and compared their performance with recurrent neural network controllers. The results show that feedforward controllers with external material interaction show adequate performance compared to recurrent controllers in both tasks. This means that even memoryless feedforward networks can evolve behavior that can solve tasks requiring memory, when material interaction is allowed. These results are expected to help us better understand the possible evolutionary route from reactive to cognitive agents.
Keywords :
environmental factors; feedforward neural nets; memoryless systems; multi-agent systems; neurocontrollers; recurrent neural nets; artificial agents; environmental markers; feedforward circuits; feedforward neural network controllers; internal memory; internalized memory; memoryless feedforward networks; neuronal circuits; reactive agent memory; recurrent neural network controllers; Detectors; Feedforward neural networks; Hippocampus; Memory management; Neurons; Olfactory; Emergent behavior; environmental memory; neuroevolution; pheromone;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Autonomous Mental Development, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
1943-0604
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TAMD.2011.2132800
Filename :
5741011
Link To Document :
بازگشت