6,208 research outputs found
Embodied Evolution in Collective Robotics: A Review
This paper provides an overview of evolutionary robotics techniques applied
to on-line distributed evolution for robot collectives -- namely, embodied
evolution. It provides a definition of embodied evolution as well as a thorough
description of the underlying concepts and mechanisms. The paper also presents
a comprehensive summary of research published in the field since its inception
(1999-2017), providing various perspectives to identify the major trends. In
particular, we identify a shift from considering embodied evolution as a
parallel search method within small robot collectives (fewer than 10 robots) to
embodied evolution as an on-line distributed learning method for designing
collective behaviours in swarm-like collectives. The paper concludes with a
discussion of applications and open questions, providing a milestone for past
and an inspiration for future research.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl
Data-efficient Neuroevolution with Kernel-Based Surrogate Models
Surrogate-assistance approaches have long been used in computationally
expensive domains to improve the data-efficiency of optimization algorithms.
Neuroevolution, however, has so far resisted the application of these
techniques because it requires the surrogate model to make fitness predictions
based on variable topologies, instead of a vector of parameters. Our main
insight is that we can sidestep this problem by using kernel-based surrogate
models, which require only the definition of a distance measure between
individuals. Our second insight is that the well-established Neuroevolution of
Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) algorithm provides a computationally efficient
distance measure between dissimilar networks in the form of "compatibility
distance", initially designed to maintain topological diversity. Combining
these two ideas, we introduce a surrogate-assisted neuroevolution algorithm
that combines NEAT and a surrogate model built using a compatibility distance
kernel. We demonstrate the data-efficiency of this new algorithm on the low
dimensional cart-pole swing-up problem, as well as the higher dimensional
half-cheetah running task. In both tasks the surrogate-assisted variant
achieves the same or better results with several times fewer function
evaluations as the original NEAT.Comment: In GECCO 201
The Case for a Mixed-Initiative Collaborative Neuroevolution Approach
It is clear that the current attempts at using algorithms to create
artificial neural networks have had mixed success at best when it comes to
creating large networks and/or complex behavior. This should not be unexpected,
as creating an artificial brain is essentially a design problem. Human design
ingenuity still surpasses computational design for most tasks in most domains,
including architecture, game design, and authoring literary fiction. This leads
us to ask which the best way is to combine human and machine design capacities
when it comes to designing artificial brains. Both of them have their strengths
and weaknesses; for example, humans are much too slow to manually specify
thousands of neurons, let alone the billions of neurons that go into a human
brain, but on the other hand they can rely on a vast repository of common-sense
understanding and design heuristics that can help them perform a much better
guided search in design space than an algorithm. Therefore, in this paper we
argue for a mixed-initiative approach for collaborative online brain building
and present first results towards this goal.Comment: Presented at WebAL-1: Workshop on Artificial Life and the Web 2014
(arXiv:1406.2507
Learning the Designer's Preferences to Drive Evolution
This paper presents the Designer Preference Model, a data-driven solution
that pursues to learn from user generated data in a Quality-Diversity
Mixed-Initiative Co-Creativity (QD MI-CC) tool, with the aims of modelling the
user's design style to better assess the tool's procedurally generated content
with respect to that user's preferences. Through this approach, we aim for
increasing the user's agency over the generated content in a way that neither
stalls the user-tool reciprocal stimuli loop nor fatigues the user with
periodical suggestion handpicking. We describe the details of this novel
solution, as well as its implementation in the MI-CC tool the Evolutionary
Dungeon Designer. We present and discuss our findings out of the initial tests
carried out, spotting the open challenges for this combined line of research
that integrates MI-CC with Procedural Content Generation through Machine
Learning.Comment: 16 pages, Accepted and to appear in proceedings of the 23rd European
Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary and bio-inspired Computation,
EvoApplications 202
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