'Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'
Abstract
Robotics currently lacks fully autonomous capabilities, especially where task knowledge is incomplete and optimal
robotic solutions cannot be pre-engineered. The intersection
of evolutionary robotics, artificial life and embodied artificial
intelligence presents a promising paradigm for generating multitask problem-solvers suitable for adapting over extended periods
in unexplored, remote and hazardous environments. To address
the automation of evolving robotic systems, we propose fully
autonomous, embodied artificial-life factories and laboratories,
situated in various environments as multi-task problem-solvers.
Such integrated factories and laboratories would be adaptive
solution designers, producing fit-for-purpose physical robots with
accelerated artificial evolution that experiment to continually
discover new tasks. Such tasks would be stepping-stones towards
accomplishing given mission objectives over extended periods
(days to decades). Rather than being purely speculative, prerequisite technologies to realize such factories have been experimentally demonstrated. Currently, vast scientific and enterprise
opportunities await in applications such as asteroid mining,
terraforming, space and deep sea exploration, though no suitable
solution exists. The proposed embodied artificial-life factories and
laboratories, termed: AutoFac, use robot production equipment
run by artificial evolution controllers to collect and synthesize
environmental information (from robotic sensory systems). Such
information is merged with current needs and mission objectives
to create new robot embodiment and task definitions that are
environmentally adapted and balance task-oriented behavior with
exploration. AutoFac is thus generalist (deployable in many
environments) but continually produces specialist solutions within
such environments — a perpetual robot machine