A memetic model of product invention

Author

Brabazon, Anthony ; de Sousa, Tiago Ferra ; Silva, Arlindo ; O´Neill, Michael ; Costa, Ernesto

Author_Institution

Univ. Coll., Dublin, Ireland

Volume

2

fYear

2005

fDate

2-5 Sept. 2005

Firstpage

1053

Abstract

This study describes a novel simulation model of the process of product invention (InventSim). Invention is conceptualized as search on a landscape of product design possibilities, by a population of profit-seeking agents (inventors). The search process embeds both social and individual learning and is modelled using a memetic-type algorithm. The algorithm includes the search heuristics of thought experiments and election. This study examines the impact of these heuristics on the rate of invention in a society where inventors´ estimates of the expected fitness (payoffs) of proposed inventions are noisy. The simulation results indicate that the heuristics are crucial in driving forward the inventive process even when payoff expectations are noisy.

Keywords

evolutionary computation; learning (artificial intelligence); product design; search problems; InventSim; memetic model; memetic-type algorithm; product design; product invention; profit-seeking agent; search heuristics; social learning; Cost function; Decision making; Educational institutions; Evolutionary computation; Genetic algorithms; Innovation management; Nominations and elections; Product design; Risk management; Robustness;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Evolutionary Computation, 2005. The 2005 IEEE Congress on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9363-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CEC.2005.1554807

Filename

1554807