Embodied Evolution in Collective Robotics: A Review

Nicolas Bredeche (1) , Evert Haasdijk (2) , Abraham Prieto (3)

1 ISIR - Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique
2 VU - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam [Amsterdam]
3 Universidade da Coruña

This article provides an overview of evolutionary robotics techniques applied to online 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. This article also presents a comprehensive summary of research published in the field since its inception around the year 2000, 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 online distributed learning method for designing collective behaviors in swarm-like collectives. This article concludes with a discussion of applications and open questions, providing a milestone for past and an inspiration for future research.

Mots clés: embodied evolution; online distributed evolution; collective robotics; evolutionary robotics; collective adaptive systems

Domaines: Robotique [cs.RO]; Intelligence artificielle [cs.AI]; Apprentissage [cs.LG]; Système multi-agents [cs.MA]; Réseau de neurones [cs.NE]

Nicolas Bredeche, Evert Haasdijk, Abraham Prieto. Embodied Evolution in Collective Robotics: A Review. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2018, 5, pp.12. ⟨10.3389/frobt.2018.00012⟩. ⟨hal-03313845⟩