Evolution of Communication and Language in Embodied Agents

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

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2. A Synthetic Approach to the Study of the Evolution of Communication and Language

   • Stefano Nolfi, Marco Mirolli

   Pages 1-9

3. Theoretical Aspects of Communication and Language

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

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4. Theoretical Aspects of Communication and Language

   1. Artificial Organisms with Human Language

      • Domenico Parisi

      Pages 13-35

   2. Evolution of Language as One of the Major Evolutionary Transitions

      • Eörs Szathmáry

      Pages 37-53

   3. Strategic Aspects of Communication

      • Edward Hagen, Peter Hammerstein, Nicole Hess

      Pages 55-65

   4. Theoretical Tools in Modeling Communication and Language Dynamics

      • Vittorio Loreto

      Pages 67-81

   5. Emergence of Scale-Free Syntax Networks

      • Bernat Corominas-Murtra, Sergi Valverde, Ricard V. Solé

      Pages 83-101

5. Evolution of Communication

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103

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   2. Evolving Communication in Embodied Agents: Theory, Methods, and Evaluation

      • Marco Mirolli, Stefano Nolfi

      Pages 105-121

   3. Evolutionary Conditions for the Emergence of Communication

      • Sara Mitri, Dario Floreano, Laurent Keller

      Pages 123-134

   4. Producer Biases and Kin Selection in the Evolution of Communication

      • Marco Mirolli, Domenico Parisi

      Pages 135-159

   5. Evolution of Signaling in a Multi-Robot System: Categorization and Communication

      • Christos Ampatzis, Elio Tuci, Vito Trianni, Marco Dorigo

      Pages 161-178

   6. Evolution of Implicit and Explicit Communication in Mobile Robots

      • Joachim de Greeff, Stefano Nolfi

      Pages 179-214

   7. Evolving Communication in Embodied Agents: Assessment and Open Challenges

      • Stefano Nolfi, Marco Mirolli

      Pages 215-220

6. Evolution of Language

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 221-221

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   2. Modeling The Formation of Language in Embodied Agents: Methods and Open Challenges

      • Luc Steels

      Pages 223-233

   3. Modeling the Formation of Language: Embodied Experiments

      • Luc Steels

      Pages 235-262

   4. Mathematical Modeling of Language Games

      • Vittorio Loreto, Andrea Baronchelli, Andrea Puglisi

      Pages 263-281

   5. Modeling the Formation of Language in Embodied Agents: Conclusions and Future Research

      • Luc Steels, Vittorio Loreto

      Pages 283-288

This field of research examines how embodied and situated agents, such as robots, evolve language and thus communicate with each other. This book is a comprehensive survey of the research in this emerging field.

The contributions explain the theoretical and methodological foundations of the field, and then illustrate the scientific and technological potentials and promising research directions. The book also provides descriptions of research experiments and related open software and hardware tools, allowing the reader to gain a practical knowledge of the topic.

The book will be of interest to scientists and undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of cognition, artificial life, artificial intelligence and linguistics.

• Adaptive behavior
• Artificial intelligence
• Artificial life
• Babel
• Chemical communication
• Communicating agents
• Complex systems
• E-puck
• Embodied agents
• Evorobot*
• Grounded communications
• Human language
• Language evolution
• Linguistics
• Multiagent systems
• Multirobot systems
• Robotics
• Self-organization
• Swarm robotics
• Wiener

From the reviews:

“One of the most challenging problems in human cognition is the origin of language. … The editors of this book have brought together two communities of researchers to record the current state of the research agenda and report some recent advances. … This volume is a fascinating summary of the state of the art in a challenging area of research. It serves as a sobering reminder of how far we are from a consistent bottom-up explanation of the wonder of human language.” (H. Van Dyke Parunak, ACM Computing Reviews, December, 2010)

• e Tecnologie della Cognizione, CNR Roma, ISTC - Ist. Scienze, Roma, Italy

  Stefano Nolfi, Marco Mirolli

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