Fine Grained Artificial Development for Body-Controller Coevolution of Soft-Bodied Animats

Joachimczak, Michał; Suzuki, Reji; Arita, Takaya

doi:10.7551/978-0-262-32621-6-ch040

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Contributions to the free-form evolution of terrestrial soft creatures come from Rieffel et al [ [56]. Closely related is also the work by Joachimczak et al, which have evolved both artificial brains and bodies for multicellular soft robots, both in fluid and terrestrial environments [57] [58] [59], and have even attempted transitions between the two by exploiting the concept of metamorphosis [60].…”

Section: Objectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving Soft Locomotion in Aquatic and Terrestrial Environments: Effects of Material Properties and Environmental Transitions

et al. 2018

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Designing soft robots poses considerable challenges; automated design approaches may be particularly appealing in this field, as they promise to optimize complex multimaterial machines with very little or no human intervention. Evolutionary soft robotics is concerned with the application of optimization algorithms inspired by natural evolution to let soft robots (both their morphologies and controllers) spontaneously evolve within physically realistic simulated environments, figuring out how to satisfy a set of objectives defined by human designers. In this article, a powerful evolutionary system is put in place to perform a broad investigation on the free-form evolution of simulated walking and swimming soft robots in different environments. Three sets of experiments are reported, tackling different aspects of the evolution of soft locomotion. The first two explore the effects of different material properties on the evolution of terrestrial and aquatic soft locomotion: particularly, we show how different materials lead to the evolution of different morphologies, behaviors, and energy-performance trade-offs. It is found that within our simplified physics world, stiffer robots evolve more sophisticated and effective gaits and morphologies on land, while softer ones tend to perform better in water. The third set of experiments starts investigating the effect and potential benefits of major environmental transitions (land↔water) during evolution. Results provide interesting morphological exaptation phenomena and point out a potential asymmetry between land→water and water→land transitions: while the first type of transition appears to be detrimental, the second one seems to have some beneficial effects.

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Section: Objectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving Soft Locomotion in Aquatic and Terrestrial Environments: Effects of Material Properties and Environmental Transitions

et al. 2018

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“…Furthermore, division was allowed to occur if and only if space in the direction of the division was not entirely occupied already by other cells [see Joachimczak et al (2014) for the rationale of this approach].…”

Section: Cell Division and Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using fitness-driven evolutionary search, we were successful in producing complex morphologies that consist of hundreds of cells, walk, run, and swim (Joachimczak et al, 2014) or even reshape their bodies when changing environments through the process of metamorphosis (Joachimczak et al, 2015). Importantly, we were able to show how such a fine-grained approach development leads to the emergence of higher level structural features, such as simple appendages that function as legs, fins, or tails.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Following the inspiration from nature and, in particular, the increasing understanding of the role of development in evolution [see, e.g., Carroll et al (2004)] and how their interactions produce what Darwin called "endless forms most beautiful, " we have proposed a biologically inspired, artificial development system that allows to evolve morphologies and controllers for 2-D, soft-bodied animats (Joachimczak et al, 2014). In our approach, animats grow from a single cell through subsequent divisions with each cell controlled by a copy of the same gene regulatory network (GRN) encoded in individual's genotype.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, we refer the reader to the original paper (Joachimczak et al, 2014) for more details and an overview of what kinds of structures it can evolve. In this work, we focus on investigating how and why novelty search contributes to evolvability in this problem domain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving Evolvability of Morphologies and Controllers of Developmental Soft-Bodied Robots with Novelty Search

2015

Self Cite

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Novelty search is an evolutionary search algorithm based on the superficially contradictory idea that abandoning goal-focused fitness function altogether can lead to the discovery of higher fitness solutions. In the course of our work, we have created a biologically inspired artificial development system with the purpose of automatically designing complex morphologies and controllers of multicellular, soft-bodied robots. Our goal is to harness the creative potential of in silico evolution, so that it can provide us with novel and efficient designs that are free of any preconceived notions a human designer would have. In order to do so, we strive to allow for the evolution of arbitrary morphologies. Using a fitness-driven search algorithm, the system has been shown to be capable of evolving complex multicellular solutions consisting of hundreds of cells that can walk, run, and swim; yet, the large space of possible designs makes the search expensive and prone to getting stuck in local minima. In this work, we investigate how a developmental approach to the evolution of robotic designs benefits from abandoning objective fitness function. We discover that novelty search produced significantly better performing solutions. We then discuss the key factors of the success in terms of the phenotypic representation for the novelty search, the deceptive landscape for co-designing morphology/brain, and the complex development-based phenotypic encoding.

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Progress, Challenges, and Prospects of Soft Robotics for Space Applications

Zhang

Quan

et al. 2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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The development of space robots is vital to broadening human cognitive boundaries. Space robots have been deployed in space science experiments, extravehicular operations, and deep space exploration. The application of space robots undoubtedly reduces the risk and cost of space activities. Traditional space robots primarily utilize rigid structures, resulting in limited degrees of freedom, which restricts their operational capabilities. In contrast, soft robots with greater flexibility and robustness may be used for future space exploration. Soft robots applied in space environments must overcome significant challenges associated with ultrahigh vacuum, microgravity, extreme temperatures, and high‐energy radiation. Herein, a comprehensive analysis of the key advantages of soft robots is presented based on the special requirements of the space environments for soft robots. Furthermore, brief insights into how soft robots must be changed in terms of their design, modeling, fabrication, sensing, and control to adapt to space environments are discussed. Specifically, soft robot scenarios with potential space application value are introduced. Finally, opinions regarding the potential directions of soft space robots are provided.

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Fine Grained Artificial Development for Body-Controller Coevolution of Soft-Bodied Animats

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Evolving Soft Locomotion in Aquatic and Terrestrial Environments: Effects of Material Properties and Environmental Transitions

Evolving Soft Locomotion in Aquatic and Terrestrial Environments: Effects of Material Properties and Environmental Transitions

Improving Evolvability of Morphologies and Controllers of Developmental Soft-Bodied Robots with Novelty Search

Progress, Challenges, and Prospects of Soft Robotics for Space Applications

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