Learning directed locomotion in modular robots with evolvable morphologies

The vision behind this paper looks ahead to evolutionary robot systems where morphologies and controllers are evolved together and ‘newborn’ robots undergo a learning process to optimize their inherited brain for the inherited body. The specific problem we address is learning controllers for the task of directed locomotion in evolvable modular robots. To this end, we present a test suite of robots with different shapes and sizes and compare two learning algorithms, Bayesian optimization and HyperNEAT. The experiments in simulation show that both methods obtain good controllers, but Bayesian optimization is more effective and sample efficient. We validate the best learned controllers by constructing three robots from the test suite in the real world and observe their fitness and actual trajectories. The obtained results indicate a reality gap, but overall the trajectories are adequate and follow the target directions successfully

Automatic Gait Generation in Modular Robots: to Oscillate or to Rotate? that is the question

Modular robots offer the possibility to design robots with a high diversity of shapes and functionalities. This nice feature also brings an important challenge: namely how to design efficient locomotion gaits for arbitrary robot structures with many degrees of freedom. In this paper, we present a framework that allows one to explore and identify highly different gaits for a given arbitraryshaped modular robot. For this, we use simulated robots made of several Roombots modules that have three rotational joints each. These modules have as interesting feature that they can produce both oscillatory movements (i.e. periodic movements around a rest position) and rotational movements (i.e. with continuously increasing angle), leading to very rich locomotion patterns. Here we ask ourselves which types of movements — purely oscillatory, purely rotational, or a combination of both— lead to the fastest gaits. To address this question we designed a control architecture based on a distributed system of coupled phase oscillators that can produce synchronized rotations and oscillations in many degrees of freedom. We also designed a specific optimization algorithm that can automatically design hybrid controllers, i.e. controllers that use oscillations in some joints and rotations in others, for fast gaits. The proposed framework is verified through multiple simulations for several robot morphologies. The results show that (i) the question whether it is better to oscillate or to rotate depends on the morphology of the robot, and that in general it is best to do both, (ii) the optimization framework can successfully generate hybrid controllers that outperform purely oscillatory and purely rotational ones, and (iii) the resulting gaits are fast, innovative, and would have been hard to design by han

Using evolutionary artificial neural networks to design hierarchical animat nervous systems.

The research presented in this thesis examines the area of control systems for robots or animats (animal-like robots). Existing systems have problems in that they require a great deal of manual design or are limited to performing jobs of a single type. For these reasons, a better solution is desired. The system studied here is an Artificial Nervous System (ANS) which is biologically inspired; it is arranged as a hierarchy of layers containing modules operating in parallel. The ANS model has been developed to be flexible, scalable, extensible and modular. The ANS can be implemented using any suitable technology, for many different environments. The implementation focused on the two lowest layers (the reflex and action layers) of the ANS, which are concerned with control and rhythmic movement. Both layers were realised as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) which were created using Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs). The task of the reflex layer was to control the position of an actuator (such as linear actuators or D.C. motors). The action layer performed the task of Central Pattern Generators (CPG), which produce rhythmic patterns of activity. In particular, different biped and quadruped gait patterns were created. An original neural model was specifically developed for assisting in the creation of these time-based patterns. It is shown in the thesis that Artificial Reflexes and CPGs can be configured successfully using this technique. The Artificial Reflexes were better at generalising across different actuators, without changes, than traditional controllers. Gaits such as pace, trot, gallop and pronk were successfully created using the CPGs. Experiments were conducted to determine whether modularity in the networks had an impact. It has been demonstrated that the degree of modularization in the network influences its evolvability, with more modular networks evolving more efficiently

The evolution of modular artificial neural networks.

This thesis describes a novel approach to the evolution of Modular Artificial Neural Networks. Standard Evolutionary Algorithms, used in this application include: Genetic Algorithms, Evolutionary Strategies, Evolutionary Programming and Genetic Programming; however, these often fail in the evolution of complex systems, particularly when such systems involve multi-domain sensory information which interacts in complex ways with system outputs. The aim in this work is to produce an evolutionary method that allows the structure of the network to evolve from simple to complex as it interacts with a dynamic environment. This new algorithm is therefore based on Incremental Evolution. A simulated model of a legged robot was used as a test-bed for the approach. The algorithm starts with a simple robotic body plan. This then grows incrementally in complexity along with its controlling neural network and the environment it reacts with. The network grows by adding modules to its structure - so the technique may also be termed a Growth Algorithm. Experiments are presented showing the successful evolution of multi-legged gaits and a simple vision system. These are then integrated together to form a complete robotic system. The possibility of the evolution of complex systems is one advantage of the algorithm and it is argued that it represents a possible path towards more advanced artificial intelligence. Applications in Electronics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace are also discussed

System Design of a Cheetah Robot Toward Ultra-high Speed

High-speed legged locomotion pushes the limits of the most challenging problems of design and development of the mechanism, also the control and the perception method. The cheetah is an existence proof of concept of what we imitate for high-speed running, and provides us lots of inspiration on design. In this paper, a new model of a cheetah-like robot is developed using anatomical analysis and design. Inspired by a biological neural mechanism, we propose a novel control method for controlling the muscles' flexion and extension, and simulations demonstrate good biological properties and leg's trajectory. Next, a cheetah robot prototype is designed and assembled with pneumatic muscles, a musculoskeletal structure, an antagonistic muscle arrangement and a J-type cushioning foot. Finally, experiments of the robot legs swing and kick ground tests demonstrate its natural manner and validate the design of the robot. In the future, we will test the bounding behaviour of a real legged system

Swing Leg Motion Strategy for Heavy-load Legged Robot Based on Force Sensing

The heavy-load legged robot has strong load carrying capacity and can adapt to various unstructured terrains. But the large weight results in higher requirements for motion stability and environmental perception ability. In order to utilize force sensing information to improve its motion performance, in this paper, we propose a finite state machine model for the swing leg in the static gait by imitating the movement of the elephant. Based on the presence or absence of additional terrain information, different trajectory planning strategies are provided for the swing leg to enhance the success rate of stepping and save energy. The experimental results on a novel quadruped robot show that our method has strong robustness and can enable heavy-load legged robots to pass through various complex terrains autonomously and smoothly