Stealth Bomber - Evolved Virtual Creature

This is another creature evolved without the use of oscillators (sine wave signal generators) in the control system.

It relies on its contact sensors to know when its little green "feet" at the back have come in contact with the ground. This can be seen in the video when the creature is lifted off the ground and doesn't do any kicking until the feet come in contact with the ground again. If they get flipped onto their backs, they're done for :P

It's from a population that was evolved first on the flat terrain, and then switched to the rough terrain. The evolution was configured and run by Shane Killian, who has kindly donated CPU time to this project.

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

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

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

[Houshalter]

Their like turtles, look at the one at 0:06 get flipped over. It would be awesome to see some darwinbots type sim with this style =P

[kjlg74]

I don't think I'd ever heard of Darwinbots until now. I just googled it. Looks interesting!

Thanks :)

[GST95DSM]

how did you make this video?



[Houshalter]

Never heard of darwinbots! =(

Its awesome ya, although extremely glitchy. Difference is theres no fitness function, just pure natural selection.

[TehThatGuy]

What kind of program do you use for this kind of stuff? And can you get it on mac?

[kjlg74]

Great! I hope you'll send the critter over after the fitness more or less levels off. I'll record and post it :)

[albedoshader]

Now the simulation is getting interesting - After several generations in uneven terrain the jumping creatures stert to develop very interesting behaviors. And the fitness is rising quite fast.

[albedoshader]

My evolution is developing well. The goal switched from jumping to traveling (170th generation, best fitness around 39 or so).

You're right, unless having any idea how "muscles, nerves, generators etc." are coded there's close to no chance at all to construct a working creature. :(

[kjlg74]

Thanks for contributing processing time, and for the compliment on the program! :)

If you're going to try messing with a creature file, here are two tips:

1) Keep the .creature file in your bin folder. That will eliminate folder-navigation time when you want to load and see changes.

2) Keep in mind that, for any given creature, a lot of the "DNA" in the .creature file is junk DNA - it will have no effect on the body at all.

Even with those tips, I expect the tinkering is going to be painful :P

[albedoshader]

I'd like to build a six/three-legged walker from scratch, for example.

I'll play around with the files and see what happens. ;) I'll send you an email, if I have more questions.

P.S.: 37th generation of experiment 2 at the moment, best fitness around 2.2

Your program is really fun to play with!