Repository logo
 

Morphological Evolution of Physical Robots through Model-Free Phenotype Development.


Change log

Authors

Brodbeck, Luzius 

Abstract

Artificial evolution of physical systems is a stochastic optimization method in which physical machines are iteratively adapted to a target function. The key for a meaningful design optimization is the capability to build variations of physical machines through the course of the evolutionary process. The optimization in turn no longer relies on complex physics models that are prone to the reality gap, a mismatch between simulated and real-world behavior. We report model-free development and evaluation of phenotypes in the artificial evolution of physical systems, in which a mother robot autonomously designs and assembles locomotion agents. The locomotion agents are automatically placed in the testing environment and their locomotion behavior is analyzed in the real world. This feedback is used for the design of the next iteration. Through experiments with a total of 500 autonomously built locomotion agents, this article shows diversification of morphology and behavior of physical robots for the improvement of functionality with limited resources.

Description

Keywords

Algorithms, Equipment Design, Models, Theoretical, Robotics

Journal Title

PLoS One

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1932-6203
1932-6203

Volume Title

10

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Sponsorship
This study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation Grant No. PP00P2123387/1 and the ETH Zurich Research Grant ETH-23-10-3. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.