Evolving cognitive scaffolding and environment adaptation: a new research direction for evolutionary robotics

Many researchers in embodied cognitive science and AI, and evolutionary robotics in particular, emphasize the interaction of brain, body and environment as crucial to the emergence of intelligent, adaptive behavior. Accordingly, the interaction between agent and environment, as well as the co-adaptation of artificial brains and bodies has been the focus of much research in evolutionary robotics. Hence, there are plenty of studies of robotic agents/species adapting to a given environment. Many animals, on the other hand, in particular humans, to some extent can choose to adapt the environment to their own needs instead of adapting (only) themselves. That alternative has been studied relatively little in robot experiments. This paper therefore presents some simple initial simulation experiments, in a delayed response task setting, that illustrate how the evolution of environment adaptation can serve to provide cognitive scaffolding that reduces the requirements for individual agents. Furthermore, theoretical implications, open questions and future research directions for evolutionary robotics are discussed.