Teaching emergence and evolution simultaneously through simulated breeding of artificial swarm behaviors

We developed a simple interactive simulation tool that applies the simulated breeding method to evolve populations of Reynolds’ Boids system. A user manually evolves swarm behaviors of artificial agents by repeatedly selecting his/her preferred behavior as a parent of the next generation. We used this tool as part of teaching materials of the course “Mathematical Modeling and Simulation” offered to engineering-major junior students in the Department of Human Communication at the University of ElectroCommunications, Japan, during the Spring semester 2005. Students actively engaged in the simulated breeding processes in the classes and voluntarily evolved a rich variety of swarm behaviors that were not initially anticipated.