Red Pentagon - Evolved Virtual Creature

This creature is from a population evolved to traverse the rough terrain shown in the second half of the video. The population was initially evolved for jumping ability and then switched to the horizontal travel task. This has resulted once again in a now all-too-familiar movement strategy that involves no clear sense of direction.

Processing time for the evolution was kindly donated on the PC of Rob Cattral.

Want to evolve unique creatures of your own? Visit the project web site at:
http://www.stellaralchemy.com/lee/virtual_creatures.html

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 3D
• virtual
• creature
• evolution
• genetic
• algorithm

[theinquisitor]

"This has resulted once again in a now all-too-familiar movement strategy that involves no clear sense of direction."

Would it be possible to avoid these kind of erratic changes in direction by altering the selection criteria?

If the selection criteria is distance travelled, would a better sense of direction emerge by changing the criteria to proximity to a distant goal, or distance travelled in a particular direction?

[kjlg74]

Yes, I think so. I should eventually add a new kind of sensor that detects the direction and distance to some goal object, and then selection could be based on how close a creature gets to the goal, or how quickly. I suspect that would reduce the problem a lot.

[newcoleco]

wow it's red! kind of creepy, maybe because of the music too.

[kjlg74]

I find the music really adds a lot. I'm glad there are artists like Kevin MacLeod making such great tunes freely available for use.

[newcoleco]

yes, the music adds a lot. :)

I'm just not quite sure about this red blood creature. I have this feeling it can bring to life outside the monitor screen and start chasing me at any moment.

[kjlg74]

:D Don't worry. It has no sense of direction. You'll easily escape if it chases you ;)

[ModernBrickfare]

@kjlg74 if they added like, eyes, then they could see and could have the ability to judge distance from the goal and could tell what direction they are heading in.

[rvirzi]

Don't most creatures lean to walk before learning to jump?

[latteanka]

It's a murder machine! It can cut your neck in 1 milisecond

[Crunch0r]

lol it looks like it's breakdancing xD