Evolved modular robots

Project website: http://birg.epfl.ch/page56514.html

"Darwin suggested that adaptation and complexity could evolve by natural selection acting successively on numerous small, heritable modifications. But is this enough? [Experimental evolution with robots illustrates] how the process of natural selection can lead to the evolution of complex traits such as adaptive behaviours. Just a few hundred generations of selection are sufficient to allow robots to evolve collision-free movement, homing, sophisticated predator versus prey strategies, coadaptation of brains and bodies, cooperation, and even altruism." (Floreano & Keller, PLoS Biol 8:e1000292, 2010)

The video shows examples of modular robots that have been evolved in simulation using an evolutionary algorithm. The body and the brain of these robots have been evolved together. The body of the robots is defined by the number of modules and their configuration (modules can be stuck together in different ways like Lego bricks). The brain controls the movements of the modules (it's actually not a brain but a decentralized system of central pattern generators, a model of neural oscillators that control locomotion in animals).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• evolution
• modular robots
• evolutionary algorithm

[kjlg74]

This is excellent :) I hope you post more.

[TheReasonWhyGuy]

Does this simulation adjust for energy used?

Meaning that creatures with more clever techniques, using less effort and getting further, would be selected for.