Physical Scaffolding Accelerates the Evolution of Robot Behavior

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-373
Author(s):  
David Buckingham ◽  
Josh Bongard
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Robotics ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Embodied Agents ◽  
Good Balance ◽  
Data Flows ◽  
Robot Behavior ◽  
Computational Budget ◽  
The Way

In some evolutionary robotics experiments, evolved robots are transferred from simulation to reality, while sensor/motor data flows back from reality to improve the next transferral. We envision a generalization of this approach: a simulation-to-reality pipeline. In this pipeline, increasingly embodied agents flow up through a sequence of increasingly physically realistic simulators, while data flows back down to improve the next transferral between neighboring simulators; physical reality is the last link in this chain. As a first proof of concept, we introduce a two-link chain: A fast yet low-fidelity ( lo-fi) simulator hosts minimally embodied agents, which gradually evolve controllers and morphologies to colonize a slow yet high-fidelity ( hi-fi) simulator. The agents are thus physically scaffolded. We show here that, given the same computational budget, these physically scaffolded robots reach higher performance in the hi-fi simulator than do robots that only evolve in the hi-fi simulator, but only for a sufficiently difficult task. These results suggest that a simulation-to-reality pipeline may strike a good balance between accelerating evolution in simulation while anchoring the results in reality, free the investigator from having to prespecify the robot's morphology, and pave the way to scalable, automated, robot-generating systems.

scholarly journals The reality of fiction in a literary world: on an excerpt from Stanisław Lem’s Solaris

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
Y. Domanskii
Keyword(s):  
Physical Reality ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Actual Reality ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

Using an excerpt from Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, this article explores the idea that, in a literary text, a fictional world and the world of physical reality may interact to form such a reality that can paradoxically turn out to be more real than what we believe to be the actual reality. It is also shown that the fictional world realized in a literary text may bring the reader to certain conclusions about the world in which he or she lives. Thus, even if literature is in­capable of affecting reality, it can change the way the latter is perceived. A fictional world is not just a reality — it is a reality of a higher order.

scholarly journals Social Networks, a Populated Picture

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (02) ◽  
pp. C04
Author(s):  
Fabio Fornasari
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
The Way

Man, by his very nature, puts things between himself and the environment, turning the latter into a place, a space. He arranges the environment around him on multiple levels, by projecting parts of himself and shaping the frontiers and the horizons that surround, define and represent him. This was learnt a long time ago, but a trace and a memory remain in the way man acts: when mapping reality (both physical reality and the reality explored through digital means), we observe it and find a way through it by adopting behaviours that have always been similar. What has changed in this mapping is the ability to recognise, especially the ability to interpret maps and creatively work them.

Introduction to Kracauer: Abstraction, Redemption and Modernity1

2020 ◽  
pp. 180-190
Author(s):  
Ian Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Physical Reality ◽  
Siegfried Kracauer ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Modern Condition ◽  
The Way

This chapter provides an analysis of the key ideas of Siegfried Kracauer, covering his key concepts of abstraction, redemption and distraction, and his account of the modern condition, the role of conceptual reason within modernity, the subordination of intuition within modernity, and the way that film may contribute to the ‘redemption of physical reality.

Blasius of Parma (d. 1416)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graziella Federici Vescovini
Keyword(s):  
Physical Science ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Linear Perspective ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Human Intellect ◽  
Immortality Of The Soul ◽  
Quantitative Account ◽  
The Way

Blasius of Parma was an important Italian philosopher, mathematician and astrologer who popularized the achievements of Oxford logic and Parisian physics in Italy. He questioned the Aristotelian foundations of medieval physical science, mechanics, astronomy and optics, thus helping to open the way to the mathematics, optics and statics of modern times. His teaching influenced the artists of the Florentine Renaissance in their rediscovery of linear perspective, and his discussion of proportions influenced the Paduan mathematicians up to the time of Galileo. He presented an atomist and quantitative account of physical reality, and a materialist account of the human intellect. His consequent denial of the immortality of the soul won him the title of ‘diabolical doctor’ (doctor diabolicus). His position on the human ability to avoid astrological determinism was equivocal. Though his work was scholastic in style, he enjoyed good relations with such Italian humanists as Vittorino da Feltre, whose request for lessons in mathematics he refused. In Florence, he took part in conversations between humanists and scholastics.

scholarly journals High-fidelity virtual stenting: modeling of flow diverter deployment for hemodynamic characterization of complex intracranial aneurysms

2015 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 832-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianping Xiang ◽  
Robert J. Damiano ◽  
Ning Lin ◽  
Kenneth V. Snyder ◽  
Adnan H. Siddiqui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intracranial Aneurysms ◽  
Average Velocity ◽  
Vascular Anatomy ◽  
Flow Diverter ◽  
Turnover Time ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
Inflow Rate ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Flow Reduction

OBJECT Flow diversion via Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) represents the most recent advancement in endovascular therapy of intracranial aneurysms. This exploratory study aims at a proof of concept for an advanced device-modeling tool in conjunction with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to evaluate flow modification effects by PED in actual, treated cases. METHODS The authors performed computational modeling of 3 PED-treated complex aneurysm cases. The patient in Case 1 had a fusiform vertebral aneurysm treated with a single PED. In Case 2 the patient had a giant internal carotid artery (ICA) aneurysm treated with 2 PEDs. Case 3 consisted of tandem ICA aneurysms (III-a and III-b) treated by a single PED. The authors’ recently developed high-fidelity virtual stenting (HiFiVS) technique was used to recapitulate the clinical deployment process of PEDs in silico for these 3 cases. Pretreatment and posttreatment aneurysmal hemodynamics studies performed using CFD simulation were analyzed. Changes in aneurysmal flow velocity, inflow rate, wall shear stress (WSS), and turnover time were calculated and compared with the clinical outcome. RESULTS In Case 1 (occluded within the first 3 months), the aneurysm had the most drastic flow reduction after PED placement; the aneurysmal average velocity, inflow rate, and average WSS were decreased by 76.3%, 82.5%, and 74.0%, respectively, whereas the turnover time was increased to 572.1% of its pretreatment value. In Case 2 (occluded at 6 months), aneurysmal average velocity, inflow rate, and average WSS were decreased by 39.4%, 38.6%, and 59.1%, respectively, and turnover time increased to 163.0%. In Case 3, Aneurysm III-a (occluded at 6 months) had a decrease by 38.0%, 28.4%, and 50.9% in average velocity, inflow rate, and average WSS, respectively, and turnover time increased to 139.6%, which was quite similar to Aneurysm II. Surprisingly, the adjacent Aneurysm III-b had more substantial flow reduction (a decrease by 77.7%, 53.0%, and 84.4% in average velocity, inflow rate, and average WSS, respectively, and an increase to 213.0% in turnover time) than Aneurysm III-a, which qualitatively agreed with angiographic observation at 3-month follow-up. However, Aneurysm III-b remained patent at both 6 months and 9 months. A closer examination of the vascular anatomy in Case 3 revealed blood draining to the ophthalmic artery off Aneurysm III-b, which may have prevented its complete thrombosis. CONCLUSIONS This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that HiFiVS modeling of flow diverter deployment enables detailed characterization of hemodynamic alteration by PED placement. Posttreatment aneurysmal flow reduction may be correlated with aneurysm occlusion outcome. However, predicting aneurysm treatment outcome by flow diverters also requires consideration of other factors, including vascular anatomy.

scholarly journals Using neural networks to mine text and predict metabolic traits for thousands of microbes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Hackmann
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Metabolic Traits ◽  
Access Information ◽  
Written Descriptions ◽  
Extract Information ◽  
The Way

AbstractMicrobes can metabolize more chemical compounds than any other group of organisms. As a result, their metabolism is of interest to investigators across biology. Despite the interest, information on metabolism of specific microbes is hard to access. Information is buried in text of books and journals, and investigators have no easy way to extract it out. Here we investigate if neural networks can extract out this information and predict metabolic traits. For proof of concept, we predicted two traits: whether microbes carry one type of metabolism (fermentation) or produce one metabolite (acetate). We collected written descriptions of 7,021 species of bacteria and archaea from Bergey’s Manual. We read the descriptions and manually identified (labeled) which species were fermentative or produced acetate. We then trained neural networks to predict these labels. In total, we identified 2,364 species as fermentative, and 1,009 species as also producing acetate. Neural networks could predict which species were fermentative with 97.3% accuracy. Accuracy was even higher (98.6%) when predicting species also producing acetate. We used these predictions to draw phylogenetic trees of species with these traits. The resulting trees were close to the actual trees (drawn using labels). Previous counts of fermentative species are 4-fold lower than our own. For acetate-producing species, they are 100-fold lower. This undercounting confirms past difficulty in extracting metabolic traits from text. Our approach with neural networks can extract information efficiently and accurately. It paves the way for putting more metabolic traits into databases, providing easy access of information by investigators.

scholarly journals Spatial Meta-transcriptomes of human and murine intestines

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Lyu ◽  
Ru Feng ◽  
Xue Li ◽  
Xiaofei Yu ◽  
GuoQiang Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Simultaneous Analysis ◽  
Transcriptomic Analysis ◽  
Microbial Abundance ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Analysis Pipeline ◽  
Experimental Optimization ◽  
Transcriptomic Data ◽  
Microbial Distribution ◽  
The Way

We developed an analysis pipeline that can extract microbial sequences from Spatial Transcriptomic data and assign taxonomic labels to them, generating a spatial microbial abundance matrix in addition to the default host expression one, enabling simultaneous analysis of host expression and microbial distribution. We applied it on both human and murine intestinal datasets and validated the spatial microbial abundance information with alternative assays. Finally, we present a few biological insights that can be gained from this novel data. In summary, this proof of concept work demonstrated the feasibility of Spatial Meta-transcriptomic analysis, and pave the way for future experimental optimization.

scholarly journals Incrementality and the Dynamics of Routines in Dialogue

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-197
Author(s):  
Andrew Gargett
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Dual Processing ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
The Core ◽  
Incremental Model ◽  
Dual Processing Model ◽  
Dynamic Syntax ◽  
The Way

We propose a novel dual processing model of linguistic routinisation, specifically formulaic ex- pressions (from relatively fixed idioms, all the way through to looser collocational phenomena). This model is formalised using the Dynamic Syntax (DS) formal account of language processing, whereby we make a specific extension to the core DS lexical architecture to capture the dynamics of linguistic routinisation. This extension is inspired by work within cognitive science more broadly. DS has a range of attractive modelling features, such as full incrementality, as well as recent ac- counts of using resources of the core grammar for modelling a range of dialogue phenomena, all of which we deploy in our account. This leads to not only a fully incremental model of formulaic lan- guage, but further, this straightforwardly extends to routinised dialogue phenomena. We consider this approach to be a proof of concept of how interdisciplinary work within cognitive science holds out the promise of meeting challenges faced by modellers of dialogue and discourse.

Proof of concept

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Tidman
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Opioid Receptors ◽  
Epidural Morphine ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Substantia Gelatinosa ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Small Case Series ◽  
The Way

The landmark paper discussed in this chapter is ‘Epidural morphine in treatment of pain’, published by Behar et al. in 1979. A small case series in the seventies first highlighted the use of epidural morphine for pain. It consists of only ten patients who were all administered 2 mg of morphine epidurally. Patients suffering from both acute and chronic pain had a significant reduction in the level of pain within 2–3 minutes, and this lasted 6–24 hours. The authors went on to postulate that morphine produced its effect by a direct action on the specific opioid receptors in the substantia gelatinosa. Although morphine is rarely used epidurally, this paper paved the way for the use of epidural opioids in many different pain conditions.

scholarly journals Quantum Structure in Cognition: Human Language as a Boson Gas of Entangled Words

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 755-802
Author(s):  
Diederik Aerts ◽  
Lester Beltran
Keyword(s):  
Energy Levels ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Einstein Condensate ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Quantum Structure ◽  
Bose Einstein Condensate ◽  
Energy States ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Bose Einstein ◽  
The Way

AbstractWe model a piece of text of human language telling a story by means of the quantum structure describing a Bose gas in a state close to a Bose–Einstein condensate near absolute zero temperature. For this we introduce energy levels for the words (concepts) used in the story and we also introduce the new notion of ‘cogniton’ as the quantum of human thought. Words (concepts) are then cognitons in different energy states as it is the case for photons in different energy states, or states of different radiative frequency, when the considered boson gas is that of the quanta of the electromagnetic field. We show that Bose–Einstein statistics delivers a very good model for these pieces of texts telling stories, both for short stories and for long stories of the size of novels. We analyze an unexpected connection with Zipf’s law in human language, the Zipf ranking relating to the energy levels of the words, and the Bose–Einstein graph coinciding with the Zipf graph. We investigate the issue of ‘identity and indistinguishability’ from this new perspective and conjecture that the way one can easily understand how two of ‘the same concepts’ are ‘absolutely identical and indistinguishable’ in human language is also the way in which quantum particles are absolutely identical and indistinguishable in physical reality, providing in this way new evidence for our conceptuality interpretation of quantum theory.

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