Multi Bot Ant

[Zelos]

Hi everyone. We all know PYs ant. im working on something better. in the old forum I sugjested making a MB ant where each type looks different. That is what im working on. Each type have a body of its own, a working is very simple while the queen have the most complex form. The queen look like this:

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    O
    |
    O
   / \
  O   Oand the worker:

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O-OQurently ive only made the body and construciton of them ready. the behavior is still left. Ive come up whit things that makes the genome alot shorter. When we want a new worker, farmer or what ever I add in the future, ive come up whit a system that makes the genome X-1 genes shorter. X=amount of body types. And the body of the queen uses only 2 genes :D hopefully I will finish this and make it work B)

[PurpleYouko]

What happens when a queen dies?

Are workers able to become new queens or will the colony just fall apart?

[Zelos]

havent worked that out yet, I start making it work whit out that the queen dies, then I can take that prob in to the calculation. but an idea would be that the queen makes an egg that a worker can stimulate to become a queen if it dies. like:
Q=Egg
O=bot
*=shoot

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                O
                 |
  Q***O-O   ->   O      O-O
                / \
               O   Oor maybe that when a arm feels the brain (I call the middle one brain) is gone it becomes a new queen. like:

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   O          O          O
    |                     |
    O    ->          ->   O   X 3
   / \                   / \
  O   O      O   O      O   Owonder which would be best

[PurpleYouko]

That would be cool  B)

How do you plan to make an egg though? Also how will the workers recognize it as a dormant queen?

Can't wait to see the working version  :D

[Zelos]

the egg can be alone between to of the arms of the queen, or even be the brain, coz its most likly the middle part survives, coz I think I add that, when it feels its about to die it will drain all the energy and delete all ties so it can save up energy to survive a bit longer. or an egg can be planted at the edge of an arm. dormant queen? you mean dominate queen?

but when it comes to reproduction im thinking on useing sexrepro when we shall have a new queen. how is that supposed to be done? I think that the queen makes 1 eggs or something, when that one shall be created I use .mrepro. but then the arm use sexrepro whit the new cell and we get a new bot that does have mutations but hopefully not to many.

im also thinking on making it so they can check a worker or anything if it got vitial mutations to the body structer. like that I have a .mutcheck and each gene that construct the body add X to that value and then its put to a .out memory. if its wrong the worker see it as threathening and kill it.

[PurpleYouko]

dormant queen? you mean dominate queen?

No I mean dormant as in inactive, not yet mature, the egg!

Ants need to be able to recognize their own queen and each other but not those of a different colony, even a colony of the same species. How will a dormant (egg) queen be recognized by the worker such that they won't kill it?
Two queens in a nest is not a great idea!

[Zelos]

that, its already done. every bot in one colony have a ID that they look for, everything which have it not do they attack. They have all the same ID, and when a queen is made it will get a new ID I think.

[PurpleYouko]

There are certainly some tricky problems with ants. Took me ages and 5 prototypes to get a good working ant colony.

[Zelos]

it sure is, right now, I have the problem taht the workers stop after a while sending energy to the queen. I use

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50 .tieval store
-2 .shoot storebut it stop after a while :wacko:

[Old Henk]

It should be

Via ties:

<tienumber> .tienum store
-1 .tieloc store
50 .tieval store

or via shots

-2 .shoots store
50 .shootval store

Bwraghw, I hate antbots. Made an Antbot, but it is very difficult to program an antbot indeed. bwraghw ;) :tantrum:

[Numsgil]

If we ever get more than like 1 functinal antbot species we should form a league.  The rules would be something along the lines of:

1.  Any individual that reproduces must not be capable of finding its own food.
2.  Any individual that finds its own food must not be capable of reproducing.

[PurpleYouko]

1. Any individual that reproduces must not be capable of finding its own food.
2. Any individual that finds its own food must not be capable of reproducing.

Except where a bot that meets criteria 1 dies and has to be replaced by a bot previously meeting criteria 2.
Basicly a bot should be able to morph from one to the other at need but not do both at once.

Have you played with ant-bots Num?

[Numsgil]

Have you played with ant-bots Num?

Only in thought.  I haven't tried any code yet.  Here's wht I'm thinking:

At birth an ant is defined to either be a mating male/new queen or a worker.  Worker's aren't allowed to become queens.  Only a new queen can become a queen.

So if the old queen dies, what happens? Either the colony dies or an new queen that's in the area claims leadership.

The idea then is that the 5 bots you start with are all new queens and each forms a different colony.

I'll start playing with ant bots when the env grid allows for 'dirt' that can be dug into (for a nest) and pheremone trails.

Having workers become queens would make league rules for an ant league very difficult.  If you can design an ant bot using the two rules I outlined above you definately have an ant like species.

Also, any ant bot league should have a much larger field size.  The tiny tiny F1 size isn't appropriate for any kind of ant species.

And the new queens should probably start with a lot more energy than normal F1 bots.

Here's what I imagine:


The green specks show where food may be found, and where bots are placed at the start of the simulation.

This obviously implies a fairly advanced:

1.  Robot placement tool
2.  Env Grid:

• For phermone trails
• For "dirt"

[PurpleYouko]

You should try running my Ant-bot 5 (if you haven't already)

The queen is created with a random ID number which is then transferred to her workers so that they can identify here using memloc and memval.

Workers also remember the locaton of the queen so that they can return with food.

If a worker returns to an empty nest, it becomes the new queen.

Don't know how well it works in 2.36 though.

Pheremone in the grid will be cool  B)

[Zelos]

it was the .shootval I ment, dont know why I said .tieval. anyhow. I use the .shootval and they just stop after a while. and the phermone stuff did I sugjest a while ago.
I like the challange :D of making it. but I continue whit this bot later when we got the mebo system working.

and the stuff that a worker can become queen doesnt I like. ive never heard that ants can make a worker a queen. but I think I make it so that the queen later disconnect all the arms if it loses one or are under attack. right before it do it it sux all the energy it can get. After that it run away to form a new colony or simple lead the old workers to the new place by phermones.

how about that idea?