Constructing an autonomous robot or artificial agent using an Artifical Life perspective requires analysis of its perceptual interface with its world. Appropriate sensorimotor dynamics are needed for its embodied interactions with the physical environment in which it is embedded. Similar issues occur for small craft navigation across the seas. These parallels are explored in the context of a newly proposed explanation for the dilep , a wave-mediated pathway between islands in the Pacific as used by traditional wave-navigators in the Marshall Islands.

Increasing evidence points to a role for complex physical phenomena, including mechanical forces and bioelectricity, as drivers of patterning in development and regeneration. We developed a genetic algorithm-based approach to search the space of biophysical simulations for pattern-forming processes and use it to demonstrate that Turing-like patterns can arise purely bioelectrically, without requiring any variation in gene expression. We also identify several bioelectric components that can reinforce and enhance such patterns manifested in cell transmembrane voltages.

Agency is an under-investigated foundational concept in understanding natural minds and how they differ from existing artificial forms of intelligence. To address this, Barandiaran et al. (2009) outlined a provisional definition of minimal agency, based upon three criteria: autonomous individuality; asymmetrical agent-environment interaction; and norm-driven modulation of that interaction. The first part of this paper reviews this definition, drawing attention to the interaction between interactional asymmetry and normativity. The definition is then applied to self-maintaining sensorimotor dynamics observed in a computational model. This has two broad goals: (i) improving our understanding of Barandiaran et al.’s definition of agency and how it could be applied to sensorimotor dynamics; and (ii) improving our understanding of the agent-like structures observed in a simulation of a simple robot whose sensors and motors are coupled to an iterant deformable sensorimotor medium (IDSM). I argue that specific structures within the simulation qualify as autonomous individuals and that these individuals can adapt to environmental changes in a way that benefits their viability. The nature of this adaptation is then examined by comparison to metabolism-independent and metabolism-based form of bacterial chemotaxis.