Collective Adaptive Agents as Techniques to build-up Edutainments Systems.

Artificial Life since its first inception has changed the way many scientists use to design and carry out experiments in different disciplines such as psychology, sociology, biology, chemistry and the like. In the last two decades Artificial Life has become a great tool to shed light on different and profound scientific questions, however its potential in educational environments has not been completely exploited. In this article wedescribetwocasestudiesin whichArtificialLifehasbeen used as a powerful learning tool for the theory of evolution, BreedBot and co. (actually Breedbot, BestBot and BrainFarm), and for group dynamics, Learn2Lead. BreedBot and its sequels Bestbot and Brainfarm are integrated hardware/software platforms that allow users to evolve a robot able to explore effectively a customized environment made up of walls and colored obstacles. Each robot is controlled by an artificial neural network whose parameters are encoded in a genetic string. Users can opt either for a natural or an artificial selection. In Learn2Lead, each learner manages a simulated team of employees which competes against other teams to maximize its objectives (e.g. profit, volume of services delivered, customer satisfaction). Both serious games provide children and older users a very easy tool to understand complex concepts like evolution an group dynamics within a playful learning context.