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The ARE Robot Fabricator: How to (Re)produce Robots that Can Evolve in the Real World

Li, Wei; Hale, Matthew F.; Buchanan, Edgar; Winfield, Alan F.; Timmis, Jon; Hart, Emma; Eiben, Agoston E.; Angus, Mike; Veenstra, Frank; Woolley, Robert; De Carlo, Matteo; Tyrrell, Andy M.

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Authors

Wei Li

Matthew F. Hale

Edgar Buchanan

Jon Timmis

Emma Hart

Agoston E. Eiben

Mike Angus

Frank Veenstra

Robert Woolley

Matteo De Carlo

Andy M. Tyrrell



Contributors

Harold Fellermann
Editor

Jaume Bacardit
Editor

Angel Goni-Moreno
Editor

Rudolf Fuchslin
Editor

Abstract

The long term vision of the Autonomous Robot Evolution (ARE) project is to create an ecosystem of both virtual and physical robots with evolving brains and bodies. One of the major challenges for such a vision is the need to construct many unique individuals without prior knowledge of what designs evolution will produce. To this end, an autonomous robot fabrication system for evolutionary robotics, the Robot Fabricator, is introduced in this paper. Evolutionary algorithms can create robot designs without direct human interaction; the Robot Fabricator will extend this to create physical copies of these designs (phenotypes) without direct human interaction. The Robot Fabricator will receive genomes and produce populations of physical individuals that can then be evaluated, allowing this to form part of the evolutionary loop, so robotic evolution is not confined to simulation and the reality gap is minimised. In order to allow the production of robot bodies with the widest variety of shapes and functional parts, individuals will be produced through 3D printing, with prefabricated actuators and sensors autonomously attached in the positions determined by evolution. This paper presents details of the proposed physical system, including a proof-of-concept demonstrator, and discusses the importance of considering the physical manufacture for evolutionary robotics.

Citation

Li, W., Hale, M. F., Buchanan, E., Winfield, A. F., Timmis, J., Hart, E., …Tyrrell, A. M. (2019). The ARE Robot Fabricator: How to (Re)produce Robots that Can Evolve in the Real World. In H. Fellermann, J. Bacardit, A. Goni-Moreno, & R. Fuchslin (Eds.), The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life (95-102). https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00147

Conference Name The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life
Conference Location Newcastle, United Kingdom
Start Date Jul 29, 2019
End Date Aug 2, 2019
Acceptance Date May 31, 2019
Online Publication Date Jul 15, 2019
Publication Date 2019-07
Deposit Date Oct 23, 2019
Publicly Available Date Oct 23, 2019
Volume 31
Pages 95-102
Book Title The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life
ISBN 9780262358446
DOI https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00147
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/4040807
Publisher URL https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/isal_a_00147

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