238 research outputs found
Evolvability signatures of generative encodings: beyond standard performance benchmarks
Evolutionary robotics is a promising approach to autonomously synthesize
machines with abilities that resemble those of animals, but the field suffers
from a lack of strong foundations. In particular, evolutionary systems are
currently assessed solely by the fitness score their evolved artifacts can
achieve for a specific task, whereas such fitness-based comparisons provide
limited insights about how the same system would evaluate on different tasks,
and its adaptive capabilities to respond to changes in fitness (e.g., from
damages to the machine, or in new situations). To counter these limitations, we
introduce the concept of "evolvability signatures", which picture the
post-mutation statistical distribution of both behavior diversity (how
different are the robot behaviors after a mutation?) and fitness values (how
different is the fitness after a mutation?). We tested the relevance of this
concept by evolving controllers for hexapod robot locomotion using five
different genotype-to-phenotype mappings (direct encoding, generative encoding
of open-loop and closed-loop central pattern generators, generative encoding of
neural networks, and single-unit pattern generators (SUPG)). We observed a
predictive relationship between the evolvability signature of each encoding and
the number of generations required by hexapods to adapt from incurred damages.
Our study also reveals that, across the five investigated encodings, the SUPG
scheme achieved the best evolvability signature, and was always foremost in
recovering an effective gait following robot damages. Overall, our evolvability
signatures neatly complement existing task-performance benchmarks, and pave the
way for stronger foundations for research in evolutionary robotics.Comment: 24 pages with 12 figures in the main text, and 4 supplementary
figures. Accepted at Information Sciences journal (in press). Supplemental
videos are available online at, see http://goo.gl/uyY1R
Multi-Objective Optimization for Speed and Stability of a Sony Aibo Gait
Locomotion is a fundamental facet of mobile robotics that many higher level aspects rely on. However, this is not a simple problem for legged robots with many degrees of freedom. For this reason, machine learning techniques have been applied to the domain. Although impressive results have been achieved, there remains a fundamental problem with using most machine learning methods. The learning algorithms usually require a large dataset which is prohibitively hard to collect on an actual robot. Further, learning in simulation has had limited success transitioning to the real world. Also, many learning algorithms optimize for a single fitness function, neglecting many of the effects on other parts of the system. As part of the RoboCup 4-legged league, many researchers have worked on increasing the walking/gait speed of Sony AIBO robots. Recently, the effort shifted from developing a quick gait, to developing a gait that also provides a stable sensing platform. However, to date, optimization of both velocity and camera stability has only occurred using a single fitness function that incorporates the two objectives with a weighting that defines the desired tradeoff between them. However, the true nature of this tradeoff is not understood because the pareto front has never been charted, so this a priori decision is uninformed. This project applies the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) to find a pareto set of fast, stable gait parameters. This allows a user to select the best tradeoff between balance and speed for a given application. Three fitness functions are defined: one speed measure and two stability measures. A plot of evolved gaits shows a pareto front that indicates speed and stability are indeed conflicting goals. Interestingly, the results also show that tradeoffs also exist between different measures of stability
Genetic programming based automatic gait generation for quadruped robots
This paper introduces a new approach to develop a fast gait for quadruped robot using genetic programming (GP). Several recent approaches have focused on the genetic algorithm (GA) to generate a gait automatically and shown significant improvements over previous results. Most of current GA based approaches use pre-selected parameters, but it is difficult to select the appropriate parameters for the optimization of gait. To overcome these problems of GA based approach, we proposed an efficient approach which optimizes joint angle trajectories using genetic programming. Our GP based method has obtained much better results than GA based approaches for experiments of Sony AIBO ers-7 in Webots environment. The elite archive mechanism(EAM) was introduced to prevent premature convergence problems in GP and has shown improvements
Evolving Robots on Easy Mode: Towards a Variable Complexity Controller for Quadrupeds
The complexity of a legged robot's environment or task can inform how
specialised its gait must be to ensure success. Evolving specialised robotic
gaits demands many evaluations - acceptable for computer simulations, but not
for physical robots. For some tasks, a more general gait, with lower
optimization costs, could be satisfactory. In this paper, we introduce a new
type of gait controller where complexity can be set by a single parameter,
using a dynamic genotype-phenotype mapping. Low controller complexity leads to
conservative gaits, while higher complexity allows more sophistication and high
performance for demanding tasks, at the cost of optimization effort. We
investigate the new controller on a virtual robot in simulations and do
preliminary testing on a real-world robot. We show that having variable
complexity allows us to adapt to different optimization budgets. With a high
evaluation budget in simulation, a complex controller performs best. Moreover,
real-world evolution with a limited evaluation budget indicates that a lower
gait complexity is preferable for a relatively simple environment.Comment: Accepted to EvoApplications1
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
A review of gait optimization based on evolutionary computation
Gait generation is very important as it directly affects the quality of locomotion of legged robots. As this is an optimization problem with constraints, it readily lends itself to Evolutionary Computation methods and solutions. This paper reviews the techniques used in evolution-based gait optimization, including why Evolutionary Computation techniques should be used, how fitness functions should be composed, and the selection of genetic operators and control parameters. This paper also addresses further possible improvements in the efficiency and quality of evolutionary gait optimization, some problems that have not yet been resolved and the perspectives for related future research
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
Evolving a Behavioral Repertoire for a Walking Robot
Numerous algorithms have been proposed to allow legged robots to learn to
walk. However, the vast majority of these algorithms is devised to learn to
walk in a straight line, which is not sufficient to accomplish any real-world
mission. Here we introduce the Transferability-based Behavioral Repertoire
Evolution algorithm (TBR-Evolution), a novel evolutionary algorithm that
simultaneously discovers several hundreds of simple walking controllers, one
for each possible direction. By taking advantage of solutions that are usually
discarded by evolutionary processes, TBR-Evolution is substantially faster than
independently evolving each controller. Our technique relies on two methods:
(1) novelty search with local competition, which searches for both
high-performing and diverse solutions, and (2) the transferability approach,
which com-bines simulations and real tests to evolve controllers for a physical
robot. We evaluate this new technique on a hexapod robot. Results show that
with only a few dozen short experiments performed on the robot, the algorithm
learns a repertoire of con-trollers that allows the robot to reach every point
in its reachable space. Overall, TBR-Evolution opens a new kind of learning
algorithm that simultaneously optimizes all the achievable behaviors of a
robot.Comment: 33 pages; Evolutionary Computation Journal 201
Fast Damage Recovery in Robotics with the T-Resilience Algorithm
Damage recovery is critical for autonomous robots that need to operate for a
long time without assistance. Most current methods are complex and costly
because they require anticipating each potential damage in order to have a
contingency plan ready. As an alternative, we introduce the T-resilience
algorithm, a new algorithm that allows robots to quickly and autonomously
discover compensatory behaviors in unanticipated situations. This algorithm
equips the robot with a self-model and discovers new behaviors by learning to
avoid those that perform differently in the self-model and in reality. Our
algorithm thus does not identify the damaged parts but it implicitly searches
for efficient behaviors that do not use them. We evaluate the T-Resilience
algorithm on a hexapod robot that needs to adapt to leg removal, broken legs
and motor failures; we compare it to stochastic local search, policy gradient
and the self-modeling algorithm proposed by Bongard et al. The behavior of the
robot is assessed on-board thanks to a RGB-D sensor and a SLAM algorithm. Using
only 25 tests on the robot and an overall running time of 20 minutes,
T-Resilience consistently leads to substantially better results than the other
approaches
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