Evolution of Communication and Language in Embodied Agents

by Nolfi, Stefano; Mirolli, Marco

• ISBN13: 9783642012495
• ISBN10: 3642012493
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-03
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York Inc

Summary

Understanding the evolution of communication and human language is one of the hardest problems in science. Of significant research and practical interest is the related artificial perspective: How can populations of artificial agents develop forms of communication of varying complexity, analogous to animal and human communication? This represents a new field of research that will advance our knowledge about how communication skills originate and evolve in natural organisms and how we can develop autonomous artefacts that are able to cooperate to solve real-life problems.

Table of Contents

A Synthetic Approach to the Study of the Evolution of Communication and Language	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Scope and Objectives of the Book	p. 3
Overview	p. 3
Theoretical Aspects of Communication and Language	p. 4
Evolution of Communication	p. 5
Evolution of Language	p. 7
Conclusion	p. 8
Appendix: Software and Hardware Tools	p. 8
Major Objectives	p. 8
Acknowledgements	p. 8
References	p. 9
Theoretical Aspects of Communication and Language
Artificial Organisms with Human Language	p. 13
Understanding the Behavior of Real Organisms by Constructing Artificial Organisms	p. 13
Artificial Organisms with Human Language	p. 15
Nine Properties of Human Language	p. 16
Linguistic Signals are Arbitrarily Linked to Their Meanings	p. 16
Language is Compositional	p. 18
Language is Culturally Transmitted and Evolved	p. 20
Language is Used to Talk to Oneself and Not Only to Others	p. 21
Language is Used for Communicating About the External Environment	p. 23
Language Uses Displaced Signals	p. 24
Language is Intentional and Requires Recognizing the Intentions of Others	p. 25
Language is the Product of a Complex Nervous System	p. 27
Language Influences Human Cognition	p. 29
Between Them or with Us?	p. 31
References	p. 34
Evolution of Language as One of the Major Evolutionary Transitions	p. 37
Introduction	p. 37
Notes on the Neurobiology of Language	p. 40
Towards a Genetic Approach to Language	p. 41
The Status of Recursion in Animals and Human	p. 41
Genetic Assimilation in Language Evolution	p. 43
Prerequisites for Language and the Concept of a Human-Specific Adaptive Suite	p. 43
Selective Scenarios for the Origin of Language	p. 45
What Made Language Origins Difficult?	p. 46
A Possible Modeling Approach	p. 48
Evolutionary Neurogenetic Algorithm (ENGA)	p. 49
The Origin of a Language as a Proper Major Evolutionary Transition	p. 49
References	p. 50
Strategic Aspects of Communication	p. 55
Defining the Strategy Concept	p. 55
Strategy Generation	p. 56
A Strategic Approach to Communication	p. 57
Costly Signaling	p. 57
Cooperative Signaling, Antagonistic Co-evolution, and Subversion	p. 60
Signaling Between "Super-organisms"	p. 62
Summary	p. 63
References	p. 63
Theoretical Tools in Modeling Communication and Language Dynamics	p. 67
Introduction	p. 67
Concepts and Tools	p. 69
Order and Disorder: The Ising Paradigm	p. 70
Role of Topology	p. 73
Dynamical Systems Approach	p. 75
Agent-Based Modeling	p. 76
Conclusions	p. 78
References	p. 79
Emergence of Scale-Free Syntax Networks	p. 83
Introduction	p. 83
Building Syntactic Networks	p. 85
Evolving Syntax Networks	p. 87
Global Organization	p. 88
Small World Development	p. 88
Scale-Free Topology	p. 91
Modeling Syntactic Network Evolution	p. 91
Simple SO Graph Growth Models	p. 92
Network Growth Model and Analysis	p. 92
Discussion	p. 97
References	p. 99
Evolution of Communication
Evolving Communication in Embodied Agents: Theory, Methods, and Evaluation	p. 105
Introduction	p. 105
Theory	p. 106
The General Framework: Embodied Cognition	p. 106
Communication as a Complex Adaptive System	p. 108
Method	p. 109
Adaptive Methods for Designing Self-organizing Communication Systems	p. 109
Research Methodology	p. 113
Evaluation Criteria	p. 114
Adaptive Role	p. 114
Expressive Power and Organizational Complexity	p. 115
Stability, Robustness, and Evolvability	p. 117
Knowledge Gain (Modeling)	p. 118
Summary and Conclusion	p. 118
References	p. 119
Evolutionary Conditions for the Emergence of Communication	p. 123
Introduction	p. 123
Experimental Setup	p. 126
The Task	p. 126
Neural Controller	p. 126
Artificial Evolution	p. 128
Quantifying Behavior	p. 128
Honest Communication	p. 129
Deceptive Communication	p. 132
Conclusion	p. 133
References	p. 134
Producer Biases and Kin Selection in the Evolution of Communication	p. 135
Introduction	p. 135
Two Problems in the Evolution of Communication	p. 137
The Biological Literature and the Manipulation Bias	p. 137
The Phylogenetic Problem	p. 138
The Adaptive Problem	p. 139
Disentangling the Two Problems	p. 140
Experimental Set-Up	p. 141
The Environment and the Task	p. 141
The Neural Network	p. 142
Individual Life and the Fitness Formula	p. 142
The Genetic Algorithm	p. 143
Measuring Communication System Quality	p. 144
Cognitive, Genetic, and Adaptive Factors in the Evolution of Communication	p. 144
The Kin-Selection Simulation	p. 147
Simulation	p. 147
Results	p. 147
The No-Cognitive-Pressure and No-Communication Simulations	p. 148
Simulations	p. 148
Results	p. 150
Discussion	p. 152
The Producer Bias Hypothesis	p. 153
Adaptive Factors	p. 156
References	p. 157
Evolution of Signaling in a Multi-Robot System: Categorization and Communication	p. 161
Introduction	p. 162
Methods	p. 162
Description of the Task	p. 162
The Simulation Model	p. 164
The Controller and the Evolutionary Algorithm	p. 165
The Fitness Function	p. 166
Results	p. 167
A First Series of Post-evaluation Tests	p. 168
Sound Signaling and Communication	p. 169
On the Adaptive Significance of Signaling	p. 172
Conclusions	p. 176
References	p. 178
Evolution of Implicit and Explicit Communication in Mobile Robots	p. 179
Introduction	p. 179
Experimental Setup	p. 180
The Environment and the Robots	p. 181
The Neural Controller	p. 181
The Evolutionary Algorithm	p. 183
Results	p. 185
Symmetrical Strategy	p. 187
Asymmetrical Strategy	p. 196
Discussion	p. 204
Appendix	p. 210
Sensors and Actuators	p. 210
Update Functions of the Neurons	p. 211
Simulation	p. 211
Criteria Used to Identify the Behavior Exhibited by the Robots Analyzed in Sect. 3.2	p. 212
Supplementary Data	p. 213
References	p. 213
Evolving Communication in Embodied Agents: Assessment and Open Challenges	p. 215
Introduction	p. 215
Adaptive Role	p. 215
Expressive Power and Organization Complexity	p. 216
Stability, Robustness, and Evolvability	p. 217
Knowledge Gain (Modeling)	p. 218
Open Questions for Future Research	p. 219
References	p. 219
Evolution of Language
Modeling The Formation of Language in Embodied Agents: Methods and Open Challenges	p. 223
Introductions	p. 223
Methods	p. 224
Challenges	p. 226
Mechanism Design of Language Games	p. 226
Concept Formation	p. 228
Lexicon Formation	p. 229
Grammar Formation	p. 230
References	p. 232
Modeling the Formation of Language: Embodied Experiments	p. 235
Introduction	p. 235
The Grounded Naming Game	p. 236
Sensori-motor Aspects	p. 237
Conceptual Aspects	p. 239
Linguistic Aspects	p. 242
Establishing Object Identity	p. 244
Experimental Results	p. 245
Spatial Language and Perspective Reversal	p. 247
Sensori-motor Aspects	p. 247
Conceptual and Linguistic Aspects	p. 249
Results	p. 250
The Case Experiment	p. 253
Sensori-motor Aspects	p. 254
Linguistic Aspects	p. 255
Conclusion	p. 260
References	p. 261
Mathematical Modeling of Language Games	p. 263
Introduction	p. 263
The Naming Game	p. 264
Symmetry Breaking: A Controlled Case	p. 268
The Role of the Interaction Topology	p. 269
Variants of the Naming Game	p. 270
The Category Game	p. 270
The Category Game Model	p. 272
Hierarchical Coordination	p. 274
Conclusions	p. 278
References	p. 279
Modeling the Formation of Language in Embodied Agents: Conclusions and Future Research	p. 283
Introduction	p. 283
Embodiment	p. 283
Language Games	p. 284
Concept Formation	p. 284
Lexicon	p. 285
Grammar	p. 286
Mathematical Modeling	p. 286
References	p. 288
Conclusion
Embodied and Communicating Agents: Towards the Establishment of a Solid Theoretical and Methodological Framework	p. 291
References	p. 293
Appendix: Software and Hardware Tools
Evorobot*	p. 297
Introduction	p. 297
Evorobot* Features	p. 298
Using Evorobot*	p. 300
User Manual, Tutorials & Download Instructions	p. 301
References	p. 301
E-puck	p. 303
Introduction	p. 303
The E-puck Robot	p. 304
Communication Turrets	p. 304
LED Light Turret	p. 304
Omni-directional Camera Turret	p. 305
Communication Experiments	p. 305
References	p. 306
Babel	p. 307
Introduction	p. 307
Overview	p. 308
Illustration	p. 310
Outlook	p. 313
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