Effects of Empathy, Swarming, and the Dilemma between Reactiveness and Proactiveness Incorporated in Caribou Agents on Evolution of their Escaping Behavior in the Wolf-Caribou Problem

摘要

We investigate whether socio-psychological aspects such as empathy, grouping (swarming), and the tradeoff between reactive and proactive behaviors, implemented in caribou agents improves the efficiency of the simulated evolution (via genetic programming) of their escape behavior or the effectiveness of such a behavior in the wolf-caribou predator prey pursuit problem. The latter comprises a team of inferior caribou agents attempting to escape from a single yet superior (in terms of sensory abilities, raw speed, and maximum energy) wolf agent in a simulated two-dimensional infinite toroidal world. We empirically verified the survival value of empathy in that it improves both the efficiency of evolution of escape behavior and the effectiveness of such a behavior. Also, we concluded that swarming facilitates a faster evolution of caribou agents while preserving the effectiveness of their evolved behavior. Finally, we investigated the dilemma between the reactiveness and proactiveness of the behavior of caribou agents. The experimental results suggest that the trade-off between the reactiveness and proactiveness facilitates a significant improvement of both the efficiency of evolution and the effectiveness of the evolved escape behavior of caribou agents.