[ODE] ODE and Alife

[Nate W]

On Thu, 4 Mar 2004, John Ratcliff wrote:

> Is there anyone on the list using ODE (or any physics engine for that
> matter) to use Alife techniques to evolve complex vehicles and
> behaviors?  

Complex vehicles, yes; complex behaviors, no.  I've added some GA stuff to
my ODE editor, it lets you build something as complex as you want, and
then it evolves for whatever behavior moves the object the furthest during
a given time period.  I haven't polished the GA part enough to do a
release yet (too many other irons in the fire already) but I'm hoping to
have some free time in 3-4 weeks, so maybe then.

The editor, called Juice, is here:
http://www.natew.com/juice

A movie of a a creature with evolved behavior:
http://www.muppetlabs.com/~nathan/video/Juice/First_GA_Critter.mpg

I'm still searching for a way to express complex control systems.  Not
just at the genotype level, but conceptually and graphically.  I want to
be able to do the basics by hand and then have a GA optimize my idea into
something that (hopefully) works well.

> If I had the bandwidth (and I don't right now) I would enjoy working
> on a project like this myself.  I'm envisioning evolving highly
> complex tinker-toy-esque objects composed of dozens of bodies and
> joints, with a fairly sophisticated steering mechanism.

Tell us more about that steering mechanism. :-)

Thanks,

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA
http://www.natew.com/