*FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS*

    THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE SIMULATION OF
                 ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR (SAB2000)
              http://www-poleia.lip6.fr/~sab2000

An International Conference organized by The International Society 
for Adaptive Behavior (ISAB), in cooperation with the Chair of 
Physiology of the College de France.

            11 - 15 September 2000, Paris, France

The objective of this interdisciplinary conference is to bring together 
researchers in computer science, control, artificial intelligence, 
robotics, neurosciences, ethology, and related fields so as to further 
our understanding of the behaviors and underlying mechanisms that allow 
natural and artificial animals to adapt and survive in uncertain 
environments. The conference will focus on well-defined models --- 
robot models, computer simulation models, mathematical models --- 
to help characterize and compare various organizational principles 
or architectures underlying adaptive behavior in real animals and
synthetic agents, the animats. In addition, there will be sessions on
psychological issues, on the one hand, and on industrial applications, 
on the other, of animat research.

Contributions treating any of the following topics from the perspective 
of adaptive behavior will receive special emphasis:

Perception and motor control            Neural correlates of behavior
Motivation and emotion                  Action selection
Learning and development                Evolutionary approaches
Emergent structures and behaviors       Internal models and representation
Collective and social behavior          Characterization of environments
Philosophical and psychological issues  Applied adaptive behavior
Autonomous robots                       Software agents and virtual creatures 
                                                
Authors should make every effort to suggest implications of their work for 
both natural and artificial animals. Papers that do not deal explicitly 
with adaptive behavior will be rejected.

Submission Instructions

Submission instructions can be found on the conference Web site. 
Submitted papers must not exceed 10 pages. Because the whole review 
process heavily relies on electronic means, the organizers strongly 
enforce electronic submissions of Postscript or PDF documents. 
Otherwise, six hard-copies in traditional paper format must be sent 
to the Program Chair, Jean-Arcady Meyer.

Computer, video, and robotic demonstrations are also invited for submission. 
Submit a 2-page proposal plus a title page to the program chair. Indicate
equipment requirements and relevance to the themes of the conference.

Publisher: The MIT Press

Conference Chairs:
Jean-Arcady Meyer, Laboratoire d'Informatique de Paris 6,     
Alain Berthoz, Collège de France
Dario Floreano, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
Herbert Roitblat, University of Hawaii
Stewart Wilson, Prediction Dynamics SA 

Workshop Chair: David Corne, University of Reading
Tutorial Chair: Agoston Eiben, Leiden University
 
Important Dates (2000):
FEBRUARY 19: Submissions must be received 
MARCH 31: Notification of acceptance or rejection (via e-mail) 
APRIL 30: Camera ready revised versions due 
SEPTEMBER 11-16: Conference dates

General queries to: sab2000@poleia.lip6.fr 
WWW Page: http://www-poleia.lip6.fr/~sab2000 

Finally, SAB2000 will be held a week before PPSN2000, the 6th International 
Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature
(http://www.inria.fr/PPSN2000). Both conferences will share several 
specialized workshops and tutorials, which will be announced later.