Adaptive communication in animals and robots

We present a real-time description of animal communication and cooperation in terms of the interaction between two identical models of operant behavior. Each model has been shown capable of describing many features of avoidance behavior in animals. In order to describe adaptive communication, it is assumed that the same mechanisms that control the generation of responses control the generation of communicative calls. Computer simulations demonstrate that the models describe one- and two-animal discriminative avoidance, as well as cooperative avoidance. The results suggest that completely specified communicating agents can be replaced by adaptive systems that define their own rules of action and communication. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.