This monograph presents key method to successfully manage the growing complexity of systems where conventional engineering and scientific methodologies and technologies based on learning and adaptability come to their limits and new ways are nowadays required. The transition from adaptable to evolvable and finally to self-evolvable systems is highlighted, self-properties such as self-organization, self-configuration, and self-repairing are introduced and challenges and limitations of the self-evolvable engineering systems are evaluated.
Cognitive networks can be crucial for the evolution of future communication systems; however, current trends have indicated major movement in other relevant fields towards the integration of different techniques for the realization of self-aware and self-adaptive communication systems. Evolution of Cognitive Networks and Self-Adaptive Communication Systems overviews innovative technologies combined for the formation of self-aware, self-adaptive, and self-organizing networks. By aiming to inform the research community and the related industry of solutions for cognitive networks, this book is essential for researchers, instructors, and professionals interested in clarifying the latest trends resulting in a unified realization for cognitive networking and communication systems.
The flying machines proposed by Leonardo da Vinci in the fifteenth century, the se- reproducing automata theory proposed by John von Neumann in the middle of the twentieth century and the current possibility of designing electronic and mechanical systems using evolutionary principles are all examples of the efforts made by humans to explore the mechanisms present in biological systems that permit them to tackle complex tasks. These initiatives have recently given rise to the emergent field of b- inspired systems and evolvable hardware. The inaugural workshop, Towards Evolvable Hardware, took place in Lausanne in October 1995, followed by the successive events of the International Conference on Evolvable Systems: From Biology to Hardware, held in Tsukuba (Japan) in October 1996, in Lausanne (Switzerland) in September 1998, in Edinburgh (UK) in April 2000, in Tokyo (Japan) in October 2001, and in Trondheim (Norway) in March 2003. Following the success of these past events the sixth international conference was aimed at presenting the latest developments in the field, bringing together researchers who use biologically inspired concepts to implement real systems in artificial intelligence, artificial life, robotics, VLSI design, and related domains. The sixth conference consolidated this biennial event as a reference meeting for the community involved in bio-inspired systems research. All the papers received were reviewed by at least three independent reviewers, thus guaranteeing a high-quality bundle for ICES 2005.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Evolvable Systems, ICES 2007, held in Wuhan, China, in September 2007. The 41 revised full papers collected in this volume are organized in topical sections on digital hardware evolution, analog hardware evolution, bio-inspired systems, mechanical hardware evolution, evolutionary design, evolutionary algorithms in hardware design, and hardware implementation of evolutionary algorithms.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Evolvable Systems, ICES 2008, held in Prague, Czech Republic, in September 2008. The 28 revised full papers and 14 revised poster papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 52 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on evolution of analog circuits, evolution of digital circuits, hardware-software codesign and platforms for adaptive systems, evolutionary robotics, development, real-world applications, evolutionary networking, evolvable artificial neural networks, and transistor-level circuit evolution.
Biology has inspired electronics from the very beginning: the machines that we now call computers are deeply rooted in biological metaphors. Pioneers such as Alan Turing and John von Neumann openly declared their aim of creating arti?cial machines that could mimic some of the behaviors exhibited by natural organisms. Unfortunately, technology had not progressed enough to allow them to put their ideas into practice. The 1990s saw the introduction of programmable devices, both digital (FP- GAs) and analogue (FPAAs). These devices, by allowing the functionality and the structure of electronic devices to be easily altered, enabled researchers to endow circuits with some of the same versatility exhibited by biological entities and sparked a renaissance in the ?eld of bio-inspired electronics with the birth of what is generally known as evolvable hardware. Eversince,the?eldhasprogressedalongwiththetechnologicalimprovements and has expanded to take into account many di?erent biological processes, from evolution to learning, from development to healing. Of course, the application of these processes to electronic devices is not always straightforward (to say the least!), but rather than being discouraged, researchers in the community have shown remarkable ingenuity, as demostrated by the variety of approaches presented at this conference and included in these proceedings.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Evolvable Systems: From Biology to Hardware, ICES 2000, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, in April 2000. The 27 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. Among the topics covered are evaluation of digital systems, evolution of analog systems, embryonic electronics, bio-inspired systems, artificial neural networks, adaptive robotics, adaptive hardware platforms, molecular computing, reconfigurable systems, immune systems, and self-repair.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Evolvable Systems: From Biology to Hardware, ICES 2000, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, in April 2000. The 27 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. Among the topics covered are evaluation of digital systems, evolution of analog systems, embryonic electronics, bio-inspired systems, artificial neural networks, adaptive robotics, adaptive hardware platforms, molecular computing, reconfigurable systems, immune systems, and self-repair.
Adopting a groundbreaking approach, the highly regarded author shows how to design methods for planning increasingly complex experiments. He begins with a brief introduction to standard quality methods and the technology in standard electric circuits. The book then gives numerous examples of how to apply the proposed methodology in a series of real-life case studies. Although these case studies are taken from the printed circuit board industry, the methods are equally applicable to other fields of engineering.
The Evolving Self focuses upon the most basic and universal of psychological problems—the individual’s effort to make sense of experience, to make meaning of life. According to Robert Kegan, meaning-making is a lifelong activity that begins in earliest infancy and continues to evolve through a series of stages encompassing childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The Evolving Self describes this process of evolution in rich and human detail, concentrating especially on the internal experience of growth and transition, its costs and disruptions as well as its triumphs. At the heart of our meaning-making activity, the book suggests, is the drawing and redrawing of the distinction between self and other. Using Piagetian theory in a creative new way to make sense of how we make sense of ourselves, Kegan shows that each meaning-making stage is a new solution to the lifelong tension between the universal human yearning to be connected, attached, and included, on the one hand, and to be distinct, independent, and autonomous on the other. The Evolving Self is the story of our continuing negotiation of this tension. It is a book that is theoretically daring enough to propose a reinterpretation of the Oedipus complex and clinically concerned enough to suggest a variety of fresh new ways to treat those psychological complaints that commonly arise in the course of development. Kegan is an irrepressible storyteller, an impassioned opponent of the health-and-illness approach to psychological distress, and a sturdy builder of psychological theory. His is an original and distinctive new voice in the growing discussion of human development across the life span.
