NEAT implementation in Delphi.
NEAT (NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies) is a method for evolving Neural Networks which was developed by Kenneth O. Stanley. DelphiNEAT is an implementation of NEAT written in Borland Delphi by mattias fagerlund. To find out more about NEAT, click on this link.
DelphiNEAT comes with a number of demo applications; Obstacle Navigator, Pole Balancing, Symbolic Regression and XOR regression. If you download the source and binary distro, all the demos are included in pre-compiled format, so you can run them even if you don't have access to Delphi.
My most interesting DelphiNEAT demo is the GeneticArt program that I developed using DelphiNEAT. You can read about it here.
I've put up two releases of DelphiNEAT, one with source only and one with compiled demos. The source only version is tiny, but if you want precompiled demos, go for the bigger file. Note that DelphiNEAT comes without any kind of documentation, so you're pretty much on your own.
Click here to download the DelphiNEAT source only distro.
Size=759,05 kb, created 2005-03-04 01:10:03.
Click here to download the DelphiNEAT source and binary distro.
Size=4 084,63 kb, created 2005-03-04 01:10:02.
Hopper
I used NEAT to evolve the controllers for a couple of simulated physical creatures. You can read more about it here. The code for the hopper and the snake aren't included in the base distro, because they require my DelphiODE package, and the latest CVS version of GLScene.
These are the demos that are included with the DelphiNEAT package.
y=abs(x)
The symbolic regression demo presents the NEAT system with a function (in the above case the function is y=abs(x)). Fitness is defined as how close is the evolved network to the sought function.
A fairly simple corridor
A more complex corridor
The aim of the Obstacle Navigator is to follow a corridor without hitting any walls. The NEAT system evolves a steering behaviour that's tested on several corridor configurations. The input of the network is the five sensors (drawn as lines) - they indicate how far from the wall the navigator is at each given sensor angle. Hitting the wall means the navigator dies. Fitness is defined as the sum of distances the navigator was able to travel before it's demise. If a navigator is able to travel all corridors without crashing, it's considered a perfect solution.
A cart balancing two poles
Pole Balancing is a classic AI benchmark. It simulates a cart running on a track, balancing one or two
poles. NEAT is extremely successfull with this benchmark, but DelphiNEAT has
failed to reach the same level. I haven't been able to pinpoint exactly why.
An early ant
The articial ant is a classic benchmark used in GA / GP. The goal is to steer an articial ant (red and black) over a mostly empty (white) toroidal world where there is a trail of food (green). If the ant finds a piece of food (a red square above), it's given a point. If it steps without finding any food (black), it simply wastes one of it's turns. When it's been allowed to run for a number of steps, it's killed off. The fitness is the number of food pieces it has found. I haven't optimized the settings for this demo yet, and I expect the performance to improve.
A successful 2-bit XOR network
A successful 4-bit XOR network
The goal of this demo, which is another classic benchmark, is to find a neural network that works like a simple XOR gate. NEAT is wildly successful at this benchmark, but the benchmark is considered to bee too simple by todays standards. When using high bit XORs, it becomes a bit tricky again.
If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, don't hesitate to email the to me at mattias@hypeskeptic.com.
