Evolutionary Developmental Robotics: Improving Morphology and Control of Physical Robots.
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Publication Date
2017-01Journal Title
Artificial life
ISSN
1064-5462
Publisher
MIT Press
Volume
23
Pages
169-185
Language
English
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Physical Medium
Print-Electronic
Metadata
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Vujovic, V., Macedo Rosendo Silva, A., Brodbeck, L., & Iida, F. (2017). Evolutionary Developmental Robotics: Improving Morphology and Control of Physical Robots.. Artificial life, 23 169-185. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00228
Abstract
Evolutionary algorithms have previously been applied to the design of morphology and control of robots. The design space for such tasks can be very complex, which can prevent evolution from efficiently discovering fit solutions. In this article we introduce an evolutionary-developmental (Evo-devo) experiment with real-world robots. It allows robots to `grow' their leg size to simulate ontogenetic morphological changes, and this is the first time that such an experiment has been performed in the physical world. To test diverse robot morphologies, robot legs of variable shapes were generated during the evolutionary process and autonomously built using additive fabrication. We present two cases with Evo-devo experiments and one with Evolution, and we hypothesize that the addition of a developmental stage can be used within robotics to improve performance. Moreover, our results show that a non-linear system-environment interaction exists, which explains the non-trivial locomotion patterns observed. In the future, robots will be present in our daily lives, and this work introduces for the first time physical robots that evolve and grow while interacting with the environment.
Sponsorship
This research was supported by the RoboSoft - Coordination Action for Soft Robotics, funded by the European Commission under the Future and Emerging Technologies - (FP7-ICT-2013-C project no 619319).
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00228
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/263846
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