Evolving two-dimensional cellular automata to perform density classification: A report on work in progress

We present results from experiments in which a genetic algorithm (GA) is used to evolve 2D cellular automata (CA) to perform a particular computational task (density classification) that requires globally coordinated information processing. The results are similar to that of earlier work on evolving 1D CAs. The behavior of the evolved 2D CAs is analyzed, and their performance is compared with that of several hand-designed 2D CAs. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.