MB Construction

In this tutorial you will see animal multi. Here you will see the core of a multibot. Feeding and searching genes are added from animal minimalis, these genes have been slightly modded to fit into a this multibot.

In this tutorial you will make a simple multibot that exists out of two parts. A head that decides what direction there is going to be taken. And a body that doesn't decide anything.

def head 50

'Gene 1 Food Finder
cond
*.eye5 0 >
*.refeye *.myeye !=
*.head 0 !=
*.multi 1 =
start
*.refveldx .dx store
*.refvelup 30 add .up store
stop

'Gene 2 Eat Food
cond
*.eye5 50 >
*.refeye *.myeye !=
'*.refeye *.myeye !=
*.head 0 !=
*.multi 1 =
start
-1 .shoot store
*.refvelup .up store
stop

'Gene 3 Avoiding Family
cond
*.multi 1 =
*.head 0 !=
*.eye5 0 =
*.refeye *.myeye = or
start
314 rnd .aimdx store
stop

These genes should look pretty familiair, these are the same genes as in animal minimalis. If you wonder what the genes do look for the basic bot tutorial. The difference you could see, are the 'def head 50'. Here the sysvar head is made. And the condition '*.head 0 !=' in every gene. What means that a bot with a non-zero number in head will execute the genes. All bodys have a zero in head. This will be explained later.

All bot also have a '*.multi 1 =' condition. This only checks if the bot is a multibot. This condition is not really neaded for the functioning of the bot. Possible needed to participate is MB-league. Although there aren't any rules at the moment.

• .multi will only return true if the tie is hardened. This takes ~20 cycles. That is the reason you see the bot doing nothing for a small moment of time after reproduction.

'Gene 4 Duplicate
cond
*.numties 0 =
*.robage 0 !=
start
50 .repro store
.head inc
stop

This gene duplicates and increases the sysvar head with one. That way it becomes a head. The conditions will only fire if there are no ties(it isn't a multibot) and it isn't 0 cycles old. That is made that way so it won't interfere with the body recombining what only happens at cycle one.

'Gene 5 Recombine
cond
*.robage 0 =
start
.tie inc
stop

This gene combines body with head using a tie. This can only happen in the first cycle. It is body because nothing is stored inside head.

'Gene 6 Splits.
cond
*.nrg 30000 >
start
.deltie inc
stop

If a multibot has a load of energy it will split. That's where the life-cycle goes back to gene 4, the old body becomes a head, and two new bodies are formed.

'Gene 7 multibot control center
cond
*.multi 1 = or
start
'*.eye5 .tout1 store
50 .sharenrg store
1 .fixlen store
100 .stifftie store
628 .fixang store
*.aimright .tout1 store
stop

The most important gene, in this gene everything is being taken care for. 50 .sharenrg store, gives every side the half of the nrg.

 1 .fixlen store,

sets length of the tie try making this longer to get a longer tie.

 100 .stifftie store,

stiffness of the tie. A lower value will make this more elastic.

 628 .fixang store,

sets the eye5 directly opposed to the tie.

 *.aimright .tout1 store

This is meant for communication between the two bots.

'Gene 8 body follows
cond
*.head 0 =
start
*.tiepres .readtie store
*.tin1 .aimright store
stop

• .tiepres .readtie store, selects the last tie created.

This let the body move with the head, the head stores *.aimright into .tout1, the body stores *.tin1 into .aimright. Everything what one bot stores inside one tout(1-10), is found on the other side at tin(1-10).

end 

Alright, newer versions don't need this anymore. But still often used.

Improvements,

Well this isn't the perfect multibot, and it wasn't meant to be. Just a simple multibot and I hope it is understandable. This bot can for example be made better by making real communications between head and body, and maybe let the body decide something. Now the body is literally just going after the head.

Maybe a small id-system for the recognition of the other side of the tie, bots can't see the other side. It would be horrible to find out that the bot you where sharing your precious nrg with was an opponent.

Defenses in the way of shell slime and stuff.

I have deleted the previous MB-tutorial that was lying here, that bot wasn't compatible with the current version, if you want to see it it is still inside the history.

This was the first tutorial I wrote here, if you don't understand it or something doesn't work right. Don't wait with blaming me. I don't look at it with beginners eyes.

Peter, that is the name you can blame. I'll be at the forum.

Coming Soon:

tielen tieang 1 ... 5 fixed.

Blind robots can tie to parent or tie by touch.

-Botsareus