Journal Articles
Chloe M. Barnes; Anikó Ekárt; Kai Olav Ellefsen; Kyrre Glette; Peter R. Lewis; Jim Tørresen
Behavioural Plasticity Can Help Evolving Agents in Dynamic Environments But at the Cost of Volatility Journal Article
In: ACM Transactions on Autonomous Adaptive Systems, vol. 15, no. 4, 2021.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agent-Based Systems, ANNs, Artificial Life, Behavioural Plasticity, Evolutionary Algorithms, Evolutionary Volatility, Neuroevolution, Neuromodulation, River Crossing
@article{Barnes2021BehaviouralVolatility,
title = {Behavioural Plasticity Can Help Evolving Agents in Dynamic Environments But at the Cost of Volatility},
author = {Chloe M. Barnes and Anikó Ekárt and Kai Olav Ellefsen and Kyrre Glette and Peter R. Lewis and Jim Tørresen},
doi = {10.1145/3487918},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-12-20},
urldate = {2021-01-01},
journal = {ACM Transactions on Autonomous Adaptive Systems},
volume = {15},
number = {4},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
abstract = {Neural networks have been widely used in agent learning architectures; however, learnings for one task might nullify learnings for another. Behavioural plasticity enables humans and animals alike to respond to environmental changes without degrading learned knowledge; this can be achieved by regulating behaviour with neuromodulation—a biological process found in the brain. We demonstrate that by modulating activity-propagating signals, neurally trained agents evolving to solve tasks in dynamic environments that are prone to change can expect a significantly higher fitness than non-modulatory agents and also achieve their goals more often. Further, we show that while behavioural plasticity can help agents to achieve goals in these variable environments, this ability to overcome environmental changes with greater success comes at the cost of highly volatile evolution.},
keywords = {Agent-Based Systems, ANNs, Artificial Life, Behavioural Plasticity, Evolutionary Algorithms, Evolutionary Volatility, Neuroevolution, Neuromodulation, River Crossing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Chloe M. Barnes; Anikó Ekárt; Peter R. Lewis
Beyond Goal-Rationality: Traditional Action Can Reduce Volatility in Socially Situated Agents Journal Article
In: Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 113, pp. 579–596, 2020.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agent-Based Systems, ANNs, Artificial Life, Evolutionary Volatility, Neuroevolution, River Crossing, Social Action
@article{Barnes2020BeyondAgents,
title = {Beyond Goal-Rationality: Traditional Action Can Reduce Volatility in Socially Situated Agents},
author = {Chloe M. Barnes and Anikó Ekárt and Peter R. Lewis},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167739X20304714},
doi = {10.1016/j.future.2020.07.033},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-12-01},
urldate = {2020-01-01},
journal = {Future Generation Computer Systems},
volume = {113},
pages = {579--596},
abstract = {Systems that pursue their own goals in shared environments can indirectly affect one another in unanticipated ways, such that the actions of other systems can interfere with goal-achievement. As humans have evolved to achieve goals despite interference from others in society, we thus endow socially situated agents with the capacity for social action as a means of mitigating interference in co-existing systems. We demonstrate that behavioural and evolutionary volatility caused by indirect interactions of goal-rational agents can be reduced by designing agents in a more socially-sensitive manner. We therefore challenge the assumption that designers of intelligent systems typically make, that goal-rationality is sufficient for achieving goals in shared environments.},
keywords = {Agent-Based Systems, ANNs, Artificial Life, Evolutionary Volatility, Neuroevolution, River Crossing, Social Action},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
PhD Theses
Chloe M. Barnes
Interference and Volatility in Evolutionary Agent-Based Systems PhD Thesis
Aston University, 2021.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: Agent-Based Systems, ANNs, Artificial Life, Behavioural Plasticity, Cooperation, Environmental Variability, Evolutionary Algorithms, Evolutionary Volatility, Network Comparisons, Neuroevolution, Neuromodulation, River Crossing
@phdthesis{Barnes2021thesis,
title = {Interference and Volatility in Evolutionary Agent-Based Systems},
author = {Chloe M. Barnes},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-09-20},
urldate = {2021-01-01},
school = {Aston University},
abstract = {Agents that exist and pursue individual goals in shared environments can indirectly affect one another in unanticipated ways, such that the actions of others in the environment can interfere with the ability to achieve goals. Despite this, the impact that these unintended interactions and interference can have on agents is not currently well understood. This is problematic as these goal-oriented agents are increasingly situated in complex sociotechnical systems, that are composed of many actors that are heterogeneous in nature. The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the effect that indirect interference from others has on evolution and goal-achieving behaviour in agent-based systems. More specifically, this is investigated in the context of agents that do not possess the ability to perceive or learn about others within the environment, as information about others may not be readily available at runtime, or there may be a distinct lack of capacity to obtain such information. By conducting three experimental studies, it is established that evolutionary volatility is a consequence of indirect interactions between goal-oriented agents in a shared environment, and that these consequences can be mitigated by designing more socially-sensitive agents. Specifically, agents that employ social action are demonstrated to reduce the evolutionary volatility experienced by goal-oriented agents, without aecting the tness received. Additionally, behavioural plasticity achieved via neuromodulation is shown to allow coexisting agents to achieve their goals more often with less evolutionary volatility in highly variable environments. While sufficient approaches to mitigate interference include learning about or modelling others, or for agents to be explicitly designed to identify interference to mitigate its consequences, this thesis demonstrates that these are not necessary. Instead, more socially-sensitive agents are shown to be capable of achieving their goals and mitigating interference without this knowledge of others, simply by shifting the focus from goal-oriented actions to more socially-oriented behaviour.},
keywords = {Agent-Based Systems, ANNs, Artificial Life, Behavioural Plasticity, Cooperation, Environmental Variability, Evolutionary Algorithms, Evolutionary Volatility, Network Comparisons, Neuroevolution, Neuromodulation, River Crossing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
Presentations
Chloe M. Barnes; Anikó Ekárt; Kai Olav Ellefsen; Kyrre Glette; Peter R. Lewis; Jim Tørresen
Overcoming Dynamicity with Plasticity: Neuromodulation for Lifelike Systems Presentation
LIFELIKE Systems Workshop, 2022, 20.07.2022.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Agent-Based Systems, ANNs, Artificial Life, Behavioural Plasticity, Environmental Variability, Evolutionary Algorithms, Evolutionary Volatility, Neuroevolution, Neuromodulation, River Crossing
@misc{Barnes2022OvercomingSystems,
title = {Overcoming Dynamicity with Plasticity: Neuromodulation for Lifelike Systems},
author = {Chloe M. Barnes and Anikó Ekárt and Kai Olav Ellefsen and Kyrre Glette and Peter R. Lewis and Jim Tørresen},
url = {https://www.organic-computing.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/LIFELIKE2022_Barnes-et-al_Neuromodulation.pdf},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-07-20},
urldate = {2022-01-01},
abstract = {Natural beings are often situated in dynamic and unpredictable environments, and have evolved to use mechanisms such as neuromodulation -- the ability to change behaviour via changes to synaptic activity in the brain -- to adapt their behaviour over time to survive. The ability to change behaviour in this way is referred to as behavioural plasticity'. In this extended abstract, we summarise the findings from an exploration of how plasticity can affect how artificial agents evolve when solving tasks of different complexity, and when evolving in dynamic and unpredictable environments.},
howpublished = {LIFELIKE Systems Workshop, 2022},
keywords = {Agent-Based Systems, ANNs, Artificial Life, Behavioural Plasticity, Environmental Variability, Evolutionary Algorithms, Evolutionary Volatility, Neuroevolution, Neuromodulation, River Crossing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {presentation}
}