Braitenberg Vehicle 2
September 5th, 2005
Valentino Braitenberg’s "Vehicle 2" is just like Vehicle 1, except that instead of having 1 sensor and 1 motor, it has 2 sensors and 2 motors. This allows for two configurations. The first configuration has the sensor on the left tied to the motor on the left. When the sensor senses more light, heat, sound, it will turn the motor on the left faster, thus steering the vehicle away from the stimulus. The second configuration has the sensor on the left tied to the motor on the right, so when it senses more stimulus on the left, it will turn toward the source. Thus, when observing theses two types of vehicles you would say the first one fears the stimulus and the second one is aggressive toward the stimulus. In this demonstration RED is ”aggressive” and YELLOW is “cowardly”.
Extended Description
References:
Bugs: Vehicles tend to get trapped at the edges of the canvas when moving at high velocities.
Behavioral Observations: I should begin by noting some of the bugs in the code. First, everything outside of the viewing area is interpreted as the color black, thus affecting the behavior of the vehicles even outside of the viewing area. Sometimes this causes them to become trapped due to their accelerating and decelerated forces within the outside confines of the border.
I have gone through several iterations of maps, so many so that I’m beginning to feel as if these vehicles are teaching me. For instance, it only takes a little bit of light to really get the vehicles accelerating and if they pass these light spots too frequently they accelerate right off the edge of the map.
After observing the individuals, the coward and the aggressor, I have identified a few character traits. One could say that the aggressor is never happy; it is constantly on the move, never resting. The dark, which it avoids, can slow it down, however it rarely stops it, and the light only provokes more movement. On the other hand, the coward seems to be on a mission. He’ll cruise at a constant speed until he hits some light, in which case he’ll go faster, if he can’t avoid it altogether. If he does avoid it he continuues on his merry way, bouncing off obstacles until he finds a dark patch to slow him down, in which case he’ll stay there seemingly content.
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