We present a newly developed Replica Exchange algorithm using q -Gaussian Swarm Quantum Particle Optimization (REX@q-GSQPO) method for solving the problem of finding the global optimum. The basis of the algorithm is to run multiple copies of independent swarms at different values of q parameter. Based on an energy criterion, chosen to satisfy the detailed balance, we are swapping the particle coordinates of neighboring swarms at regular iteration intervals. The swarm replicas with high q values are characterized by high diversity of particles allowing escaping local minima faster, while the low q replicas, characterized by low diversity of particles, are used to sample more efficiently the local basins. We compare the new algorithm with the standard Gaussian Swarm Quantum Particle Optimization (GSQPO) and q-Gaussian Swarm Quantum Particle Optimization (q-GSQPO) algorithms, and we found that the new algorithm is more robust in terms of the number of fitness function calls, and more efficient in terms ability convergence to the global minimum. In additional, we also provide a method of optimally allocating the swarm replicas among different q values. Our algorithm is tested for three benchmark functions, which are known to be multimodal problems, at different dimensionalities. In addition, we considered a polyalanine peptide of 12 residues modeled using a G\=o coarse-graining potential energy function.

Biologically-inspired AI methods like evolutionary algorithms have shown great promise in creating complex structures yet these structures still pale in comparison to their natural counterparts. The recently introduced generative encoding compositional pattern producing networks (CPPNs), which is based on the principles of how natural organisms develop, narrowed this gap by showing that it is possible to artificially evolve life-like patterns with regularities at a high-level of abstraction. As these generative and developmental systems (GDS) are asked to evolve increasingly complex structures, the question of how to start evolution from a promising part of the search space becomes more and more important. To address this challenge, we introduce the concept of a CPPN-Compiler , which allows the user to directly compile a high-level description of the desired starting structure into the CPPN itself . In this paper, as proof of concept, the CPPN-Compiler is able to generate CPPN-encoded representations from vector-based images that can serve as the starting point for further evolution. Importantly, the offspring of these compiled CPPNs show meaningful variations because they directly embody important domain-specific regularities like symmetry or repetition. Thus the results presented in this paper open up a new research direction in GDS, in which specialized CPPN-Compilers for different domains could help to overcome the black box of evolutionary optimization.

Over the last several decades research efforts have explored various forms of artificial life and embodied artificial life as methods for developing autonomous agents. Such approaches, although a part of the AI canon, are rarely used in research aimed at creating artificial general intelligence. This paper explores the prospects of using in silicoartificial evolution to develop machine consciousness, or strong AI. It is possible that artificial evolution and situated self-organizing agents could become viable tools for studying machine consciousness, but there are several issues that must be overcome. One problem is the use of exogenous selection methods to drive artificial evolutionary processes. A second problem relates to agent representation that is inconsistent with the environment in which the agents are situated. These issues limit the potential for open-ended evolution and fine-grained fitting of agents to environment, which are likely to be important for the eventual development of situated artificial consciousness.

An intelligent agent can display behavior that is not directly related to the task it learns. Depending on the adopted AI framework and task formulation, such behavior is sometimes attributed to environment exploration, or ignored as irrelevant, or even penalized as undesired. We postulate here that virtually every interaction of an agent with its learning environment can result in outcomes that carry information which can be potentially exploited to solve the task. To support this claim, we present Pattern Guided Evolutionary Algorithm (PANGEA), an extension of genetic programming (GP), a genre of evolutionary computation that aims at synthesizing programs that display the desired input-output behavior. PANGEA uses machine learning to search for regularities in intermediate outcomes of program execution (which are ignored in standard GP), more specifically for relationships between these outcomes and the desired program output. The information elicited in this way is used to guide the evolutionary learning process by appropriately adjusting program fitness. An experiment conducted on a suite of benchmarks demonstrates that this architecture makes agent learning more effective than in conventional GP. In the paper, we discuss the possible generalizations and extensions of this architecture and its relationships with other contemporary paradigms like novelty search and deep learning. In conclusion, we extrapolate PANGEA to postulate a dynamic and behavioral learning framework for intelligent agents.

Due to recent advances in synthetic biology and artificial life, the origin of life is currently a hot topic of research. We review the literature and argue that the two traditionally competing "replicator-first" and "metabolism-first" approaches are merging into one integrated theory of individuation and evolution. We contribute to the maturation of this more inclusive approach by highlighting some problematic assumptions that still lead to an impoverished conception of the phenomenon of life. In particular, we argue that the new consensus has so far failed to consider the relevance of intermediate timescales. We propose that an adequate theory of life must account for the fact that all living beings are situated in at least four distinct timescales, which are typically associated with metabolism, motility, development, and evolution. On this view, self-movement, adaptive behavior and morphological changes could have already been present at the origin of life. In order to illustrate this possibility we analyze a minimal model of life-like phenomena, namely of precarious, individuated, dissipative structures that can be found in simple reaction-diffusion systems. Based on our analysis we suggest that processes in intermediate timescales could have already been operative in prebiotic systems. They may have facilitated and constrained changes occurring in the faster- and slower-paced timescales of chemical self-individuation and evolution by natural selection, respectively.

Artificial Immune System (AIS-MACA) a novel computational intelligence technique is can be used for strengthening the automated protein prediction system with more adaptability and incorporating more parallelism to the system. Most of the existing approaches are sequential which will classify the input into four major classes and these are designed for similar sequences. AIS-MACA is designed to identify ten classes from the sequences that share twilight zone similarity and identity with the training sequences with mixed and hybrid variations. This method also predicts three states (helix, strand, and coil) for the secondary structure. Our comprehensive design considers 10 feature selection methods and 4 classifiers to develop MACA (Multiple Attractor Cellular Automata) based classifiers that are build for each of the ten classes. We have tested the proposed classifier with twilight-zone and 1-high-similarity benchmark datasets with over three dozens of modern competing predictors shows that AIS-MACA provides the best overall accuracy that ranges between 80% and 89.8% depending on the dataset.

Traditionally focused on good old-fashioned AI and robotics, the Spanish AI community holds a vigorous computational intelligence substrate. Neuromorphic, evolutionary, or fuzzylike systems have been developed by many research groups in the Spanish computer sciences. It is no surprise, then, that these naturegrounded efforts start to emerge, enriching the AI catalogue of research projects and publications and, eventually, leading to new directions of basic or applied research. In this article, we review the contribution of Melomics in computational creativity.

Bros. The competition has four tracks. Almost as important is that good scoring mechanisms are available, that the visual aspects of the games make it easy to compare and characterize the performance of the controllers, and that it is easy to engage both students and the general public in the competition. Several recently introduced competitions are based on games such as Ms. Pac-Man (Lucas 2007), the first-person shooter Unreal Tournament (Hingston 2010), the real-time strategy game Star-Craft, and the car racing game TORCS (Loiacono et al. 2010). In 2009, Julian Togelius and Sergey Karakovskiy set out to create a benchmark for game AI controllers based on Infinite Mario Bros (IMB). IMB is an open source clone (created by Markus Persson, who later went on to create Minecraft) of Nintendo's platform game Super Mario Bros. (SMB), which has been one of the world's most influential games since its release in 1985.

This book chapter is an introduction to and an overview of the information-theoretic, task independent utility function "Empowerment", which is defined as the channel capacity between an agent's actions and an agent's sensors. It quantifies how much influence and control an agent has over the world it can perceive. This book chapter discusses the general idea behind empowerment as an intrinsic motivation and showcases several previous applications of empowerment to demonstrate how empowerment can be applied to different sensor-motor configuration, and how the same formalism can lead to different observed behaviors. Furthermore, we also present a fast approximation for empowerment in the continuous domain.

In this paper, a new method for dynamic balancing of double four-bar crank slider mechanism by meta- heuristic-based optimization algorithms is proposed. For this purpose, a proper objective function which is necessary for balancing of this mechanism and corresponding constraints has been obtained by dynamic modeling of the mechanism. Then PSO, ABC, BGA and HGAPSO algorithms have been applied for minimizing the defined cost function in optimization step. The optimization results have been studied completely by extracting the cost function, fitness, convergence speed and runtime values of applied algorithms. It has been shown that PSO and ABC are more efficient than BGA and HGAPSO in terms of convergence speed and result quality. Also, a laboratory scale experimental doublefour-bar crank-slider mechanism was provided for validating the proposed balancing method practically.