Abstract

The Bluenome Model of Development is introduced. The Bluenome model is a developmental model of Artificial Morphogenesis, inspired by biological development, instantiating a subset of two-dimensional Cellular Automata. The Bluenome model is cast as a general model, one which generates organizational topologies for finite sets of component types, assuming local interactions between components. Its key feature is that there exists no relation between genotopic complexity and phenotopic complexity, implying its potential application in high-dimensional evolutionary problems. The Bluenome model is first applied to a series of application-neutral experiments, in which it is shown experimentally that it is capable of producing robust agents in a reasonable amount of computation. Next, it is applied to an application involving the design of embedded agents. This second series of experiments contrasts the Bluenome model against a model in which there exists a bijective relation between genotype and phenotype, showing that the Bluenome model is capable of performing as well or better in cases of high phenotopic complexity. Additionally, genomes from the Bluenome Model are shown to be capable of re-development in differing environments, retaining many relevant phenotopic properties.