The Use of Genetic Algorithms for the Development of Sensorimotor Control Systems

This paper provides a high-level review of current and recent work in the use of genetic algorithm based techniques to develop sensorimotor control systems for autonomous agents. It focuses on network-based controllers and genetic encoding issues associated with them. The paper closes with a discussion of the possibility of using artificial evolutionary techniques to help tackle more specifically scientific questions about natural sensorimotor systems. Keywords Genetic Algorithms -- Neural Networks -- Sensorimotor Control Systems 1 Introduction Animals that we often think of as rather simple (e.g. arthropods 1 ) in fact display a range of sophisticated adaptive behaviours, involving complex sensorimotor coordination [Young89]. These behaviours are generated by remarkably few nerve cells which might suggest that they are based on simple mechanisms. However, in general this does not appear to be the case [Ewert80]. Despite their size, the dynamics of arthropod nervous systems are in..