Genetic Dots

Simulate dots walking across a plane over multiple generations, learning to become more accurate after every generation.

Running

Open Driver.m in MATLAB 2015+ and click the Run button

Config

• Driver.m
  • start: (x, y) coordinate where all dots start from
  • goal: (x, y) coordinate where all dots should try to get to
  • num_gens: number of generations to simulate
• Move.m
  • pop_size: population size
  • num_keep: the best this many individuals to keep each generation
  • max_step: the largest distance any individual can take in one simulation step
  • mutation_rate: the percentage of directions which will change on new individuals each generation
  • plane_size: the greatest coordinate (both x and y) that an agent can step to without dying off

Misc Details

• The number of steps each generation is determined by the distance to goal from start in Driver.m and the dist_modifier in Move.m
• The plane_size in Move.m does not check if start and goal are within the bounds; ensure start and goal are within the square defined by the corners (0, 0) and the plane_size coordinate
• Diagonal start and goal coordinates yield better results than keeping start and goal on the same x or y line due to how new directions are chosen