BoxCar2D - neat little genetic algorithm demonstration

www.boxcar2d.comBasically someone's hooked up a 2d physics library to a genetic algorithm to evolve little "cars" that race across a random 2d landscape. It's really quite a neat demonstration of the efficacy of evolution in a simply toy environment.

pretty cool, you can just start it off and let it roll.I'm stuck at 676,9 right now though ...

Generation 33
Can't seem to get past a nasty part of my track. 1044.6 is as far as they can go right now

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Facts don't lie or have an agenda. Facts are just facts

I have an exam tomorrow and plan on studying the whole night, so I'm gonna start 1 or 2 and see how it goes.Still, 1044,6 is pretty impressive if you ask me. I got a couple successive ones that looked like motorcycles, but never got past 900. You start off with an inital concept or totally random beginning ?AbE How many mutations per gen ? how many wheels ?Edited by slevesque, : No reason given.

random beginning
3 wheels
5 mutationsI just went with the standard set up for first time. Slowly up to 1049. major dip in the road followed by a steep hill.

I would have responded to you eariler but I got myself trapped in this boxcar program.I started from defaults and went 925 in 10 generations with a two-wheeled thing where the rear wheel was smaller (by half) then the front (until it flipped over of course).Restarted and went 905 in 15 generations with a pretty good looking roadster with two-even wheels on a short wheel base.Restarted again and when 966 in 15 generations with the most god-awfull ugly thing that looked like a bike with a small third wheel half-way between 2 larger wheels and it had one spike out the back end and a larger spike over the front wheel. Seems to have kept it balanced as this one never flipped.Anyway, I've wasted a number of hours on this sillyness now so "THANK YOU VERY MUCH, JACK!"Nice find.

I agree, this hasn't helped my studying at all Do you do pop. size of 20 or smaller ?Edited by slevesque, : No reason given.

I must have started with inferior stock ... I'm on my 37th generation and just getting over 900.I think I'm moving from specialists to generalists --- that is, the earlier models were in a way more interesting because they'd have spikes and things so that at this point in the terrain they'd bounce like that and that and then right themselves, whereas now I seem to have something which is just generally less likely to flip over and which would probably work well on a different terrain.I used the standard setup except that I changed the maximum wheel number to five.

Did you drop the wheel frequency as well? If not, that's probably why yours lagged behind. I presume it actually converged to a 2 wheel design?Have you guys played with the different landscapes yet?

Heh heh. It suddenly went from 900.7 to 1002.3 by a slight modification to its underside which has no apparent effect except causing it to perform an aerial somersault over the awkward spot at the 900 mark.I've said it before, I'll say it again, evolution is cool.---Interestingly, the tail is no longer performing the function for which it originally evolved, that of preventing it from sliding back into the pit around 749. I wonder if it will become vestigial.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

1084.6 (1:50) and 1084.3 (1.49) from two different cars.Ran for 50 generations. No distance improvement for at least 10 generations.Moose

There was a highly successful three-wheeled form for a while, but it's gone the way of the dinosaurs.

1116 at gen 52

I was thinking that we could challenge the ID supporters to a little contest. They get 3 design iterations on a given terrain and we will pit those designs against the evolved cars. What do you think?ABE: I thought of this when I noticed that a hotlink on the main page sends you to a menu where you can design your own cars.Edited by Taq, : No reason given.

Check the 'Best Cars' page and its comments...