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The Robot in the Swarm: An Investigation into Agent Embodiment within Virtual Robotic Swarms

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Advances in Artificial Life (ECAL 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2801))

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Abstract

This paper explores the notion of ‘degree of embodiment’ within the context of autonomous agent research, specifically within swarms of virtual robotic agents. Swarms of virtual robots with systematically varied degrees of embodiment are designed and implemented, and a 3D world created for them. Experimental simulations are then carried out wherein groups of these robots perform swarm tasks, and levels of performance for each group are measured and analysed. Analysis of this data suggests that there is no simple linear or monotonic correlation between degree of agent embodiment and swarm performance (in this particular virtual environment), but rather that an ‘ideal’ degree of embodiment exists to create a superior swarm behaviour for a given task in a given environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adaptive Systems Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and Information Science, University of Hertfordshire,  

    Chrystopher L. Nehaniv & Kerstin Dautenhahn

  2. No Institute Given,  

    Adam Lee Newton

Authors
  1. Adam Lee Newton
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  2. Chrystopher L. Nehaniv
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  3. Kerstin Dautenhahn
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

    Wolfgang Banzhaf

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Dortmund, 11, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer-Str. 20, 44227, Dortmund, Germany

    Jens Ziegler

  3. Fraunhofer IAIS, Sankt Augustin

    Thomas Christaller

  4. Bio Systems Analysis Group, Jena Centre for Bioinformatics and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Ernst-Abbe-Platz 1–4, D-07743, Jena, Germany

    Peter Dittrich

  5. School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, NR4 7TJ, Norwich, United Kingdom

    Jan T. Kim

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Newton, A.L., Nehaniv, C.L., Dautenhahn, K. (2003). The Robot in the Swarm: An Investigation into Agent Embodiment within Virtual Robotic Swarms. In: Banzhaf, W., Ziegler, J., Christaller, T., Dittrich, P., Kim, J.T. (eds) Advances in Artificial Life. ECAL 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2801. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39432-7_89

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39432-7_89

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20057-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39432-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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