We investigate an evolutionary robot system where (simulated) modular robots can reproduce and create robot children that inherit the parents' morphologies by crossover and mutation. Within this system we compare ...
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ISBN:
(数字)9783030437220
ISBN:
(纸本)9783030437213;9783030437220
We investigate an evolutionary robot system where (simulated) modular robots can reproduce and create robot children that inherit the parents' morphologies by crossover and mutation. Within this system we compare two approaches to creating good controllers, i.e., evolution only and evolution plus learning. In the first one the controller of a robot child is inherited, so that it is produced by applying crossover and mutation to the controllers of its parents. In the second one the controller of the child is also inherited, but additionally, it is enhanced by a learning method. The experiments show that the learning approach does not only lead to different fitness levels, but also to different (bigger) robots. This constitutes a quantitative demonstration that changes in brains, i.e., controllers, can induce changes in the bodies, i.e., morphologies.
This paper describes the development and testing of a new evolutionary robotics research test bed. The test bed consists of a colony of small computationally powerful mobile robots that use evolved neural network cont...
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ISBN:
(纸本)0780378601
This paper describes the development and testing of a new evolutionary robotics research test bed. The test bed consists of a colony of small computationally powerful mobile robots that use evolved neural network controllers and vision based sensors to generate team game-playing behaviors. The vision based sensors function by converting video images into range and object color data. Large evolvable neural network controllers use these sensor data to control mobile robots. The networks require 150 individual input connections to accommodate the processed video sensor data. Using evolutionary computing methods, the neural network based controllers were evolved to play the competitive team game Capture the Flag with teams of mobile robots. Neural controllers were evolved in simulation and transferred to real robots for physical verification. Sensor signals in the simulated environment are formatted to duplicate the processed real video sensor values rather than the raw video images. Robot controllers receive sensor signals and send actuator commands of the same format, whether they are driving physical robots in a real environment or simulated robots agents in an artificial environment. Evolved neural controllers can be transferred directly to the real mobile robots for testing and evaluation. Experimental results generated with this new evolutionary robotics research test bed are presented.
A critical issue in evolutionary robotics is the transfer of controllers learned in simulation to reality. This is especially the case for small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as the platforms are highly dynamic and...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450371285
A critical issue in evolutionary robotics is the transfer of controllers learned in simulation to reality. This is especially the case for small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as the platforms are highly dynamic and susceptible to breakage. Previous approaches often require simulation models with a high level of accuracy, otherwise significant errors may arise when the well-designed controller is being deployed onto the targeted platform. Here we try to overcome the transfer problem from a different perspective, by designing a spiking neurocontroller which uses synaptic plasticity to cross the reality gap via online adaptation. Through a set of experiments we show that the evolved plastic spiking controller can maintain its functionality by self-adapting to model changes that take place after evolutionary training, and consequently exhibit better performance than its non-plastic counterpart.
How to jointly optimize the morphology and controller is a challenging problem in evolutionary robotics. Due to the large search space, both quality diversity algorithms and types of encodings have been employed to se...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450392686
How to jointly optimize the morphology and controller is a challenging problem in evolutionary robotics. Due to the large search space, both quality diversity algorithms and types of encodings have been employed to search the solution space more effectively. Here we compare Multi-dimensional Archive of Phenotypic Elites (MAP-Elites) and a standard evolutionary algorithm as well as the effect of using a direct versus an indirect encoding. The results showed that the MAP-Elites algorithm found diverse solutions, yet the encodings accounted for a larger performance discrepancy. This indicates that the representation is at least as important as the optimization method for effectively creating robots.
Soft robotics is a rapidly growing area of robotics research that would benefit greatly from design automation, given the challenges of manually engineering complex, compliant, and generally non-intuitive robot body p...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9798400701191
Soft robotics is a rapidly growing area of robotics research that would benefit greatly from design automation, given the challenges of manually engineering complex, compliant, and generally non-intuitive robot body plans and behaviors. It has been suggested that a major hurdle currently limiting soft robot brain-body co-optimization is the fragile specialization between a robot's controller and the particular body plan it controls, resulting in premature convergence. Here we posit that modular controllers are more robust to changes to a robot's body plan. We demonstrate a decreased reduction in locomotion performance after morphological mutations to soft robots with modular controllers, relative to those with similar global controllers - leading to fitter offspring. Moreover, we show that the increased transferability of modular controllers to similar body plans enables more effective brain-body co-optimization of soft robots, resulting in an increased rate of positive morphological mutations and higher overall performance of evolved robots. We hope that this work helps provide specific methods to improve soft robot design automation in this particular setting, while also providing evidence to support our understanding of the challenges of brain-body co-optimization more generally.
The problem of how to acquire a model of a physical robot, which is fit for evolution of controllers that can subsequently be used to control that robot, is considered in the context, of racing a radio-controlled toy ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781595936974
The problem of how to acquire a model of a physical robot, which is fit for evolution of controllers that can subsequently be used to control that robot, is considered in the context, of racing a radio-controlled toy car around a randomised track. Several modelling techniques are compared, and the specific properties of the acquired models that;influence the quality of the evolved controller are discussed. As we ann to minimise the amount;of domain knowledge used., we further investigate the relation between the assumptions about the modelled system made by particular modelling techniques and the suitability of the acquired models as bases for controller evolution. We find that none of the models acquired is good enough on its own, and that a key, to evolving robust behaviour is to evaluate controllers simultaneously on multiple models during evolution. Examples of successfully evolved racing control for the physical car are analysed.
This paper presents results from two sets of experiments which investigate how strategies used by embodied dynamical agents in a simple braking task are affected by the perceptual information that the agents receive. ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9783642151927
This paper presents results from two sets of experiments which investigate how strategies used by embodied dynamical agents in a simple braking task are affected by the perceptual information that the agents receive. Agents are evolved in a simple 2D environment containing one stationary object. The task of the agents is to stop as close as possible to the object without hitting it. The results of these experiments demonstrate that most of the evolved agents use an impulsive braking strategy, in which deceleration is not controlled continuously. Potential causes of this impulsive braking strategy and possible future directions are discussed.
Novelty search is a state-of-the-art evolutionary approach that promotes behavioural novelty instead of pursuing a static objective. Along with a large number of successful applications, many different variants of nov...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450334723
Novelty search is a state-of-the-art evolutionary approach that promotes behavioural novelty instead of pursuing a static objective. Along with a large number of successful applications, many different variants of novelty search have been proposed. It is still unclear, however, how some key parameters and algorithmic components influence the evolutionary dynamics and performance of novelty search. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive empirical study focused on novelty search's algorithmic components. We study the k parameter - the number of nearest neighbours used in the computation of novelty scores;the use and function of an archive;how to combine novelty search with fitness-based evolution;and how to con figure the mutation rate of the underlying evolutionary algorithm. Our study is conducted in a simulated maze navigation task. Our results show that the con figuration of novelty search can have a significant impact on performance and behaviour space exploration. We conclude with a number of guidelines for the implementation and con figuration of novelty search, which should help future practitioners to apply novelty search more effectively.
In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of different neuronal models on online neuroevolution of robotic controllers in multirobot systems. We compare the performance and robustness of neural network-based controll...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9783642406690;9783642406683
In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of different neuronal models on online neuroevolution of robotic controllers in multirobot systems. We compare the performance and robustness of neural network-based controllers using summing neurons, multiplicative neurons, and a combination of the two. We perform a series of simulation-based experiments in which a group of e-puck-like robots must perform an integrated navigation and obstacle avoidance task in environments of different complexity. We show that: (i) multiplicative controllers and hybrid controllers maintain stable performance levels across tasks of different complexity, (ii) summing controllers evolve diverse behaviours that vary qualitatively during task execution, and (iii) multiplicative controllers lead to less diverse and more static behaviours that are maintained despite environmental changes. Complementary, hybrid controllers exhibit both behavioural characteristics, and display superior generalisation capabilities in simple and complex tasks.
We used an evolutionary robotics methodology to generate pairs of simulated agents capable of reliably establishing and maintaining a coordination pattern under noisy conditions. Unlike previous related work, agents w...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9783540691334
We used an evolutionary robotics methodology to generate pairs of simulated agents capable of reliably establishing and maintaining a coordination pattern under noisy conditions. Unlike previous related work, agents were only evolved for this ability and not for their capacity to discriminate social contingency (i.e., a live responsive partner) from non-contingent engagements (i.e., a recording). However, when they were made to interact with a recording of their partner made during a successful previous interaction, the coordination pattern could not be established. An analysis of the system's underlying dynamics revealed (i) that stability of the coordination pattern requires ongoing mutuality of interaction, and (ii) that the interaction process is not only constituted by, but also constitutive of, individual behavior. We suggest that this stability of coordination is a general property of a certain class of interactively coupled dynamical systems, and conclude that psychological explanations of an individual's sensitivity to social contingency need to take into account the role of the interaction process.
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