This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Cliff, D. Articles by Bullock, S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Adding "Foveal Vision" to Wilson's Animat

University of Sussex

Seth Bullock

University of Sussex

Different animals employ different strategies for sampling sensory data. In animals that can see, differences in sampling strategy manifest themselves as differences in field of view and in spatially variant sampling (so-called foveal vision). In analyzing adaptive behavior in animals, or attempting to design autonomous robots, mechanisms for exploring variations in sensory sampling strategy will be required. This article describes our work exploring a minimal system for investigating the effects of variations in patterns of sensory sampling. We have reimplemented Wilson's animat (Wilson, 1985b) and then experimented with altering its sensory sampling pattern (i.e., its sensory field). Empirical results are presented which demonstrate that alterations in the sensory field pattern can have a significant effect on the animat's observable behavior. Analysis of our results involves characterizing the interaction between the animat's sensory field and the environment within which the animat resides. We found that the animat's observed behavior can, at least in part, be explained by the animat cautiously moving in a manner that attempts to maximize the generation of new information from the environment over time. We demonstrate that similar explanations can be offered for behavioral patterns in real animals. The article concludes with a discussion of the generality of the results and reflections on the prospects for further work.

Key Words: Wilson's animat • sensory sampling • agent-environment interaction • classifier system

Adaptive Behavior, Vol. 2, No. 1, 49-72 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/105971239300200103


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Suzuki and D. Floreano Enactive Robot Vision Adaptive Behavior, April 1, 2008; 16(2-3): 122 - 128. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Wheeler and P. de Bourcier How Not to Murder Your Neighbor: Using Synthetic Behavioral Ecology to Study Aggressive Signaling Adaptive Behavior, January 1, 1995; 3(3): 273 - 309. [Abstract] [PDF]