Exploring models of development for evolutionary circuit design

Traditional circuit design does not scale well to large, complex problems. Nature solves the scalability problem by using a complex mapping implicit in the process of biological development. By modelling this process we aim to improve scalability in evolutionary circuit design. Here we extend our earlier work (Gordon and Bentley, 2002) by demonstrating that evolution can learn and encode useful circuit design abstractions in a developmental process. We go on to present enhanced models of development with improved intercellular communication and show how this improves their ability to generate circuits.