Adaptation to changing environments is a hallmark of biological systems. Diversity in traits is necessary for adaptation and can influence the survival of a population faced with novelty. In habitats that remain stable over many generations, stabilizing selection reduces trait differences within populations, thereby appearing to remove the diversity needed for heritable adaptive responses in new environments. Paradoxically, field studies have documented numerous populations under long periods of stabilizing selection and evolutionary stasis that have rapidly evolved under changed environmental conditions. In this article, we review how cryptic genetic variation (CGV) resolves this diversity paradox by allowing populations in a stable environment to gradually accumulate hidden genetic diversity that is revealed as trait differences when environments change. Instead of being in conflict, environmental stasis supports CGV accumulation and thus appears to facilitate rapid adaptation in new environments as suggested by recent CGV studies. Similarly, degeneracy has been found to support both genetic and non-genetic adaptation at many levels of biological organization. Degenerate, as opposed to diverse or redundant, ensembles appear functionally redundant in certain environmental contexts but functionally diverse in others. CGV and degeneracy paradigms for adaptation are integrated in this review, revealing a common set of principles that support adaptation at multiple levels of biological organization. Though a discussion of simulation studies, molecular-based experimental systems, principles from population genetics, and field experiments, we demonstrate that CGV and degeneracy reflect complementary top-down and bottom-up, respectively, conceptualizations of the same basic phenomenon and arguably capture a universal feature of biological adaptive processes.

This paper illustrates successful implementation of three evolutionary algorithms, namely- Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) and Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO) algorithms to economic load dispatch problem (ELD). Power output of each generating unit and optimum fuel cost obtained using all three algorithms have been compared. The results obtained show that ABC and BFO algorithms converge to optimal fuel cost with reduced computational time when compared to PSO for the two example problems considered.

International networks, although highly efficient, may produce surprising threshold effects that shift costs to geographically distant locations. International utility, transportation, and information networks facilitate the efficient flow of information, energy, goods and people. These networks exhibit a scale-free network structure with a few large “hubs”. Yet their efficiency belies their lack of robustness. Because such networks transcend national boundaries, furthermore, disruptions to the network in one geographic region may have profound economic and national security costs for countries in another region. To illustrate how complex networks may transmit costs among countries, this paper builds an agent-based model (ABM) of the international air transportation system. The ABM employs a genetic algorithm to identify “small” disruptions that produce cascading network failures. The study makes two contributions. First, it demonstrates how some complex networks evolve into network structures that trade off robustness for efficiency. Second, it illustrates how researchers can combine agent-based modeling, evolutionary computation, and network analysis to simulate differing failure modes for global networks. This convergence of simulation methodologies characterizes the emerging field of computational social science.

The new scenarios of contemporary adaptive robotics seem to suggest a transformation of the traditional methods. In the search for new approaches to the control of adaptive autonomous systems, the mind becomes a fundamental source of inspiration. In this paper we anticipate, through the use of simulation, the cognitive and behavioral properties that emerge from a recent prototype robotic platform, EcoBot, a family of bio-mechatronic symbionts provided with an `artificial metabolism', that has been under physical development during recent years. Its energy reliance on a biological component and the consequent limitation of its supplied energy determine a special kind of dynamic coupling between the robot and its environment. Rather than just an obstacle, energetic constraints become the opportunity for the development of a rich set of behavioral and cognitive properties.

Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms are computational problem-solving methods that are inspired by the complex behaviors of ant colonies; specifically, the ways in which ants interact with each other and their environment to optimize the overall performance of the ant colony. Our eventual goal is to develop and experiment with ACO methods that can more effectively adapt to dynamically changing environments and problems. We describe biological ant systems and the dynamics of their environments and behaviors. We then introduce a family of dynamic ACO algorithms that can handle dynamic modifications of their inputs. We report empirical results, showing that dynamic ACO algorithms can effectively adapt to time-varying environments.

This paper deals with the arrow of complexification of engineering. We claim that the complexification of engineering consists in (a) that shift throughout which engineering becomes a science; thus it ceases to be a (mere) praxis or profession; (b) becoming a science, engineering can be considered as one of the sciences of complexity. In reality, the complexification of engineering is the process by which engineering can be studied, achieved and understood in terms of knowledge, and not of goods and services any longer. Complex engineered systems and bio-inspired engineering are so far the two expressions of a complex engineering.

This paper compares various optimization methods for fuzzy inference system optimization. The optimization methods compared are genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization and simulated annealing. When these techniques were implemented it was observed that the performance of each technique within the fuzzy inference system classification was context dependent.

We present a system that uses evolutionary optimization to suggest new story-world events that, if added to an existing interactive story, would most improve the average interactive experience, according to author-supplied criteria. In doing so, we aim to apply some of the ideas from drama-managed storytelling, such as authorial aesthetic control, in an unguided setting more akin to emergent storytelling: rather than guiding or directing a player towards an experience in line with an author's aesthetic goals, the storyworld is augmented with new content in a way that will tend to align with an author's goals, even if the player is not guided. In this paper, we present an offline system, and demonstrate its robustness to a number of variations in authorial criteria and player-model assumptions. This is intended to lay the groundwork for a future system that would generate new content online, allowing for interactive stories larger than those explicitly written by the author.

This paper presents a search-based approach to generating game content that satisfies both gameplay requirements and user-expressed aesthetic criteria. Using evolutionary constraint satisfaction, we search for spaceships (for a space combat game) represented as compositional pattern-producing networks. While the gameplay requirements are satisfied by ad-hoc defined constraints, the aesthetic evaluation function can also be informed by human aesthetic judgement. This is achieved using indirect interactive evolution, where an evaluation function re-weights an array of aesthetic criteria based on the choices of a human player. Early results show that we can create aesthetically diverse and interesting spaceships while retaining in-game functionality.

Wind energy plays an increasing role in the supply of energy world-wide. The energy output of a wind farm is highly dependent on the weather condition present at the wind farm. If the output can be predicted more accurately, energy suppliers can coordinate the collaborative production of different energy sources more efficiently to avoid costly overproductions. With this paper, we take a computer science perspective on energy prediction based on weather data and analyze the important parameters as well as their correlation on the energy output. To deal with the interaction of the different parameters we use symbolic regression based on the genetic programming tool DataModeler. Our studies are carried out on publicly available weather and energy data for a wind farm in Australia. We reveal the correlation of the different variables for the energy output. The model obtained for energy prediction gives a very reliable prediction of the energy output for newly given weather data.