Contributed talk in Autonomous Evolution, Production and Learning in Robotic Eco-Systems 2, Aug. 2, 2019, 11 a.m. in room NUBS 2.10

Heuristics as Decision-making Habits of Autonomous Sensorimotor Agents

Erasmo Batta and Christopher Stephens

watch Publication Human judgement is better described as a heuristic process rather than maximisation of a utility function. Heuristics are alternative rules of decision-making whose rapid and effortless implementation is useful to confront risk scenarios that compromise the viability of an individual. They are defined in an enactive frame as self-sustained and self-generated habits of behaviour selection in sensorimotor agents influenced by the individual history of sensorimotor contingencies, the environment, arguably, by some inherited behavioural trends. In this work, we analyse the heuristics emergence and its necessary ecological conditions when performed decisions are related to energy intake and energy expenditure. Agent's sensors and intentions are coupled to an iterant deformable sensorimotor medium (IDSM). This model explains transparently the generation of sensorimotor habits in simulated robots through the influence of registers of previously executed behaviours reinforced by repetition. We create a decision-making frame based on intentions as probabilities of specific actions to implement IDSM on agent models of behaviour related to energy intake (agent eats) and energy expenditure (agent moves). In this model is seen that agents which survive long periods of time intend and execute more movement often. Inheritance of the medium is introduced in agents with a small improvement on the lifespan of agents.