Speck Olga, Speck Thomas, Baur Sabine, Herdy Michael
Cluster of Excellence livMatS @ FIT-Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies, University of Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 105, 79110 Freiburg, Germany.
Plant Biomechanics Group @ Botanic Garden Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Schänzlestr. 1, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2024 Jul 18;9(7):439. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics9070439.
With a focus on education and teaching, we provide general background information on bioinspired optimization methods by comparing the concept of optimization and the search for an optimum in engineering and biology. We introduce both the principles of Darwinian evolution and the basic evolutionary optimization procedure of evolution strategies. We provide three educational modules in work sheets that can be used by teachers and students to improve their understanding of evolution strategies. The educational module "Optimization of a Milk Carton" shows that the material consumption in producing a milk carton can be minimized using an evolution strategy with a mutative step size control. The use of a standard dice and a pocket calculator enables new milk cartons to be generated, with the offspring having the lowest material consumption becoming the parent of the next generation. The other educational modules deal with the so-called brachistochrone problem. The module "Fastest and Shortest Marble Track" provides a construction plan for a marble track whereby students can experimentally compare the "path of shortest length" with the "path of shortest time". The EvoBrach software, is used in the module "Various Marble Track Shapes" to compare the running times of a marble on a straight line, a parabola, and a brachistochrone. In conclusion, the introduction to the biomimetic method of evolution strategies and the educational modules should deepen the understanding of both optimization problems and biological evolution.
以教育和教学为重点，我们通过比较工程学和生物学中优化的概念以及寻找最优解的过程，提供了关于仿生优化方法的一般背景信息。我们介绍了达尔文进化论的原理以及进化策略的基本进化优化过程。我们在工作表中提供了三个教育模块，教师和学生可以使用这些模块来加深对进化策略的理解。教育模块“牛奶盒的优化”表明，使用具有变异步长控制的进化策略可以使生产牛奶盒时的材料消耗最小化。使用标准骰子和袖珍计算器能够生成新的牛奶盒，材料消耗最低的后代将成为下一代的亲本。其他教育模块涉及所谓的最速降线问题。模块“最快和最短的弹珠轨道”提供了一个弹珠轨道的构建方案，学生可以通过实验比较“最短长度路径”和“最短时间路径”。在模块“各种弹珠轨道形状”中使用EvoBrach软件来比较弹珠在直线、抛物线和最速降线上的运行时间。总之，对进化策略仿生方法的介绍以及教育模块应该会加深对优化问题和生物进化的理解。
