Artificial evolution of robot bodies and control: on the interaction between evolution, individual and cultural learning

Abstract

We survey and reflect on evolutionary approaches to the joint optimisation of the body and control of a robot, in scenarios where a the goal is to find a design that maximises performance on a specified task. The review is grounded in a general framework for evolution which permits the interaction of evolution acting on a population with individual and cultural learning mechanisms. We discuss examples of variations of the general scheme of "evolution plus learning" from a broad range of robotic systems, and reflect on how the interaction of the two paradigms influences diversity, performance, and rate of improvement. Finally, we suggest a number of avenues for future work as result of the insights that arise from the review.

Citation

Hart, E., & Le Goff, L. K. (2022). Artificial evolution of robot bodies and control: on the interaction between evolution, individual and cultural learning. Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences, 377(1843), https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0117

• Journal Article Type: Review
• Acceptance Date: Sep 23, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 13, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-01
• Deposit Date: Oct 13, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 13, 2021
• Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Print ISSN: 0962-8436
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-2970
• Publisher: Royal Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 377
• Issue: 1843
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0117
• Keywords: Artificial Evolution; Robotics; evolution; individual learning; cultural learning
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2812315