534 research outputs found
Automatically Designing Robot Controllers and Sensor Morphology with Genetic Programming
International audienceGenetic programming provides an automated design strategy to evolve complex controllers based on evolution in nature. In this contribution we use genetic programming to automatically evolve efficient robot controllers for a corridor following task. Based on tests executed in a simulation environment we show that very robust and efficient controllers can be obtained. Also, we stress that it is important to provide sufficiently diverse fitness cases, offering a sound basis for learning more complex behaviour. The evolved controller is successfully applied to real environments as well. Finally, controller and sensor morphology are co-evolved, clearly resulting in an improved sensor configuration
Evolution of Control Programs for a Swarm of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rapidly becoming a critical military asset. In the future, advances in miniaturization are going to drive the development of insect size UAVs. New approaches to controlling these swarms are required. The goal of this research is to develop a controller to direct a swarm of UAVs in accomplishing a given mission. While previous efforts have largely been limited to a two-dimensional model, a three-dimensional model has been developed for this project. Models of UAV capabilities including sensors, actuators and communications are presented. Genetic programming uses the principles of Darwinian evolution to generate computer programs to solve problems. A genetic programming approach is used to evolve control programs for UAV swarms. Evolved controllers are compared with a hand-crafted solution using quantitative and qualitative methods. Visualization and statistical methods are used to analyze solutions. Results indicate that genetic programming is capable of producing effective solutions to multi-objective control problems
Engineering evolutionary control for real-world robotic systems
Evolutionary Robotics (ER) is the field of study concerned with the application
of evolutionary computation to the design of robotic systems. Two main
issues have prevented ER from being applied to real-world tasks, namely scaling to
complex tasks and the transfer of control to real-robot systems. Finding solutions
to complex tasks is challenging for evolutionary approaches due to the bootstrap
problem and deception. When the task goal is too difficult, the evolutionary process
will drift in regions of the search space with equally low levels of performance
and therefore fail to bootstrap. Furthermore, the search space tends to get rugged
(deceptive) as task complexity increases, which can lead to premature convergence.
Another prominent issue in ER is the reality gap. Behavioral control is typically
evolved in simulation and then only transferred to the real robotic hardware when
a good solution has been found. Since simulation is an abstraction of the real
world, the accuracy of the robot model and its interactions with the environment
is limited. As a result, control evolved in a simulator tends to display a lower
performance in reality than in simulation.
In this thesis, we present a hierarchical control synthesis approach that enables
the use of ER techniques for complex tasks in real robotic hardware by mitigating
the bootstrap problem, deception, and the reality gap. We recursively decompose
a task into sub-tasks, and synthesize control for each sub-task. The individual
behaviors are then composed hierarchically. The possibility of incrementally
transferring control as the controller is composed allows transferability issues to
be addressed locally in the controller hierarchy. Our approach features hybridity,
allowing different control synthesis techniques to be combined. We demonstrate
our approach in a series of tasks that go beyond the complexity of tasks where ER
has been successfully applied. We further show that hierarchical control can be applied
in single-robot systems and in multirobot systems. Given our long-term goal
of enabling the application of ER techniques to real-world tasks, we systematically
validate our approach in real robotic hardware. For one of the demonstrations in
this thesis, we have designed and built a swarm robotic platform, and we show the
first successful transfer of evolved and hierarchical control to a swarm of robots
outside of controlled laboratory conditions.A Robótica Evolutiva (RE) é a área de investigação que estuda a aplicação de
computação evolutiva na conceção de sistemas robóticos. Dois principais desafios
têm impedido a aplicação da RE em tarefas do mundo real: a dificuldade em solucionar
tarefas complexas e a transferência de controladores evoluídos para sistemas
robóticos reais. Encontrar soluções para tarefas complexas é desafiante para as
técnicas evolutivas devido ao bootstrap problem e à deception. Quando o objetivo
é demasiado difícil, o processo evolutivo tende a permanecer em regiões do espaço
de procura com níveis de desempenho igualmente baixos, e consequentemente não
consegue inicializar. Por outro lado, o espaço de procura tende a enrugar à medida
que a complexidade da tarefa aumenta, o que pode resultar numa convergência
prematura. Outro desafio na RE é a reality gap. O controlo robótico é tipicamente
evoluído em simulação, e só é transferido para o sistema robótico real quando uma
boa solução tiver sido encontrada. Como a simulação é uma abstração da realidade,
a precisão do modelo do robô e das suas interações com o ambiente é limitada,
podendo resultar em controladores com um menor desempenho no mundo real.
Nesta tese, apresentamos uma abordagem de síntese de controlo hierárquica
que permite o uso de técnicas de RE em tarefas complexas com hardware robótico
real, mitigando o bootstrap problem, a deception e a reality gap. Decompomos
recursivamente uma tarefa em sub-tarefas, e sintetizamos controlo para cada subtarefa.
Os comportamentos individuais são então compostos hierarquicamente.
A possibilidade de transferir o controlo incrementalmente à medida que o controlador
é composto permite que problemas de transferibilidade possam ser endereçados
localmente na hierarquia do controlador. A nossa abordagem permite
o uso de diferentes técnicas de síntese de controlo, resultando em controladores
híbridos. Demonstramos a nossa abordagem em várias tarefas que vão para além
da complexidade das tarefas onde a RE foi aplicada. Também mostramos que o
controlo hierárquico pode ser aplicado em sistemas de um robô ou sistemas multirobô.
Dado o nosso objetivo de longo prazo de permitir o uso de técnicas de
RE em tarefas no mundo real, concebemos e desenvolvemos uma plataforma de
robótica de enxame, e mostramos a primeira transferência de controlo evoluído e
hierárquico para um exame de robôs fora de condições controladas de laboratório.This work has been supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science
and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) under the grants
SFRH/BD/76438/2011, EXPL/EEI-AUT/0329/2013, and by Instituto de Telecomunicações
under the grant UID/EEA/50008/2013
Evolving robots: from simple behaviours to complete systems
Building robots is generally considered difficult, because the designer not only has to
predict the interaction between the robot and the environment, but also has to deal
with the ensuing problems. This thesis examines the use of the evolutionary approach
in designing robots; the explorations range from evolving simple behaviours for real
robots, to complex behaviours (also for real robots), and finally to complete robot
systems — including controllers and body plans.
A framework is presented for evolving robot control systems. It includes two components: a task independent Genetic Programming sub-system and a task dependent
controller evaluation sub-system. The performance evaluation of each robot controller
is done in a simulator to reduce the evaluation time, and then the evolved controllers
are downloaded to a real robot for performance verification. In addition, a special rep¬
resentation is designed for the reactive robot controller. It is succinct and can capture
the important characteristics of a reactive control system, so that the evolutionary system can efficiently evolve the controllers of the desired behaviours for the robots. The
framework has been successfully used to evolve controllers for real robots to achieve a
variety of simple tasks, such as obstacle avoidance, safe exploration and box-pushing.
A methodology is then proposed to scale up the system to evolve controllers for more
complicated tasks. It involves adopting the architecture of a behaviour-based system,
and evolving separate behaviour controllers and arbitrators for coordination. This
allows robot controllers for more complex skills to be constructed in an incremental
manner. Therefore the whole control system becomes easy to evolve; moreover, the
resulting control system can be explicitly distributed, understandable to the system
designer, and easy to maintain. The methodology has been used to evolve control
systems for more complex tasks with good results.
Finally, the evolutionary mechanism of the framework described above is extended
to include a Genetic Algorithm sub-system for the co-evolution of robot body plans
— structuralparametersofphysicalrobotsencodedaslinearstringsofrealnumbers.
An individual in the extended system thus consists of a brain(controller) and a body.
Whenever the individual is evaluated, the controller is executed on the corresponding
body for a period of time to measure the performance. In such a system the Genetic
Programming part evolves the controller; and the Genetic Algorithm part, the robot
body. The results show that the complete robot system can be evolved in this manner.
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Bio-inspired Dynamic Control Systems with Time Delays
The world around us exhibits a rich and ever changing environment of startling, bewildering and fascinating complexity. Almost everything is never as simple as it seems, but through the chaos we may catch fleeting glimpses of the mechanisms within. Throughout the history of human endeavour we have mimicked nature to harness it for our own ends. Our attempts to develop truly autonomous and intelligent machines have however struggled with the limitations of our human ability. This has encouraged some to shirk this responsibility and instead model biological processes and systems to do it for us.
This Thesis explores the introduction of continuous time delays into biologically inspired dynamic control systems. We seek to exploit rich temporal dynamics found in physical and biological systems for modelling complex or adaptive behaviour through the artificial evolution of networks to control robots. Throughout, arguments have been presented for the modelling of delays not only to better represent key facets of physical and biological systems, but to increase the computational potential of such systems for the synthesis of control.
The thorough investigation of the dynamics of small delayed networks with a wide range of time delays has been undertaken, with a detailed mathematical description of the fixed points of the system and possible oscillatory modes developed to fully describe the behaviour of a single node. Exploration of the behaviour for even small delayed networks illustrates the range of complex behaviour possible and guides the development of interesting solutions.
To further exploit the potential of the rich dynamics in such systems, a novel approach to the 3D simulation of locomotory robots has been developed focussing on minimising the computational cost. To verify this simulation tool a simple quadruped robot was developed and the motion of the robot when undergoing a manually designed gait evaluated. The results displayed a high degree of agreement between the simulation and laser tracker data, verifying the accuracy of the model developed.
A new model of a dynamic system which includes continuous time delays has been introduced, and its utility demonstrated in the evolution of networks for the solution of simple learning behaviours. A range of methods has been developed for determining the time delays, including the novel concept of representing the time delays as related to the distance between nodes in a spatial representation of the network. The application of these tools to a range of examples has been explored, from Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) to robot control and neural networks. The performance of these systems has been compared and contrasted with the efficacy of evolutionary runs for the same task over the whole range of network and delay types.
It has been shown that delayed dynamic neural systems are at least as capable as traditional Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Networks (CTRNNs) and show significant performance improvements in the control of robot gaits. Experiments in adaptive behaviour, where there is not such a direct link between the enhanced system dynamics and performance, showed no such discernible improvement. Whilst we hypothesise that the ability of such delayed networks to generate switched pattern generating nodes may be useful in Evolutionary Robotics (ER) this was not borne out here.
The spatial representation of delays was shown to be more efficient for larger networks, however these techniques restricted the search to lower complexity solutions or led to a significant falloff as the network structure becomes more complex. This would suggest that for anything other than a simple genotype, the direct method for encoding delays is likely most appropriate. With proven benefits for robot locomotion and the open potential for adaptive behaviour delayed dynamic systems for evolved control remain an interesting and promising field in complex systems research
Hierarchical evolution of robotic controllers for complex tasks
A robótica evolucionária é uma metodologia que permite que robôs aprendam
a efetuar uma tarefa através da afinação automática dos seus “cérebros” (controladores).
Apesar do processo evolutivo ser das formas de aprendizagem mais radicais
e abertas, a sua aplicação a tarefas de maior complexidade comportamental não
é fácil. Visto que os controladores são habitualmente evoluídos através de simulação
computacional, é incontornável que existam diferenças entre os sensores e
atuadores reais e as suas versões simuladas. Estas diferenças impedem que os controladores
evoluídos alcancem um desempenho em robôs reais equivalente ao da
simulação.
Nesta dissertação propomos uma abordagem para ultrapassar tanto o problema
da complexidade comportamental como o problema da transferência para
a realidade. Mostramos como um controlador pode ser evoluído para uma tarefa
complexa através da evolução hierárquica de comportamentos. Experimentamos
também combinar técnicas evolucionárias com comportamentos pré-programados.
Demonstramos a nossa abordagem numa tarefa em que um robô tem que encontrar
e salvar um colega. O robô começa numa sala com obstáculos e o colega
está localizado num labirinto ligado à sala. Dividimos a tarefa de salvamento
em diferentes sub-tarefas, evoluímos controladores para cada sub-tarefa, e combinamos
os controladores resultantes através de evoluções adicionais. Testamos os
controladores em simulação e comparamos o desempenho num robô real. O controlador
alcançou uma taxa de sucesso superior a 90% tanto na simulação como
na realidade.
As contribuições principais do nosso estudo são a introdução de uma metodologia
inovadora para a evolução de controladores para tarefas complexas, bem
como a sua demonstração num robô real.Evolutionary robotics is a methodology that allows for robots to learn how
perform a task by automatically fine-tuning their “brain” (controller). Evolution
is one of the most radical and open-ended forms of learning, but it has proven
difficult for tasks where complex behavior is necessary (know as the bootstrapping
problem). Controllers are usually evolved through computer simulation, and differences
between real sensors and actuators and their simulated implementations
are unavoidable. These differences prevent evolved controllers from crossing the
reality gap, that is, achieving similar performance in real robotic hardware as they
do in simulation.
In this dissertation, we propose an approach to overcome both the bootstrapping
problem and the reality gap. We demonstrate how a controller can be evolved
for a complex task through hierarchical evolution of behaviors. We further experiment
with combining evolutionary techniques and preprogrammed behaviors.
We demonstrate our approach in a task in which a robot has to find and
rescue a teammate. The robot starts in a room with obstacles and the teammate
is located in a double T-maze connected to the room. We divide the rescue task
into different sub-tasks, evolve controllers for each sub-task, and then combine
the resulting controllers in a bottom-up fashion through additional evolutionary
runs. The controller achieved a task completion rate of more than 90% both in
simulation and on real robotic hardware.
The main contributions of our study are the introduction of a novel methodology
for evolving controllers for complex tasks, and its demonstration on real
robotic hardware
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Evolved transistor array robot controllers
For the first time a field programmable transistor array (FPTA) was used to evolve robot control circuits directly in analog hardware. Controllers were successfully incrementally evolved for a physical robot engaged in a series of visually guided behaviours, including finding a target in a complex environment where the goal was hidden from most locations. Circuits for recognising spoken commands were also evolved and these were used in conjunction with the controllers to enable voice control of the robot, triggering behavioural switching. Poor quality visual sensors were deliberately used to test the ability of evolved analog circuits to deal with noisy uncertain data in realtime. Visual features were coevolved with the controllers to automatically achieve dimensionality reduction and feature extraction and selection in an integrated way. An efficient new method was developed for simulating the robot in its visual environment. This allowed controllers to be evaluated in a simulation connected to the FPTA. The controllers then transferred seamlessly to the real world. The circuit replication issue was also addressed in experiments where circuits were evolved to be able to function correctly in multiple areas of the FPTA. A methodology was developed to
analyse the evolved circuits which provided insights into their operation. Comparative experiments demonstrated the superior evolvability of the transistor array medium
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