IngentaConnect Evolvable Hardware in Evolutionary Robotics

Authors: Tan K.C.¹; Wang L.F.²; Lee T.H.²; Vadakkepat P.²

Source: Autonomous Robots, Volume 16, Number 1, January 2004 , pp. 5-21(17)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

In recent decades the research on Evolutionary Robotics (ER) has developed rapidly. This direction is primarily concerned with the use of evolutionary computing techniques in the design of intelligent and adaptive controllers for robots. Meanwhile, much attention has been paid to a new set of integrated circuits named Evolvable Hardware (EHW), which is capable of reconfiguring its architectures unlimited time based on artificial evolution techniques. This paper surveys the application of evolvable hardware in evolutionary robotics. The evolvable hardware is an emerging research field concerning the development of evolvable robot controllers at the hardware level to adapt to dynamic changes in environments. The context of evolvable hardware and evolutionary robotics is reviewed, and a few representative experiments in the field of robotic hardware evolution are presented. As an alternative to conventional robotic controller designs, the potentialities and limitations of the EHW-based robotic system are discussed and summarized.

Keywords: evolutionary robotics; evolvable hardware; autonomous robots

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1023/B:AURO.0000008669.57012.88

Affiliations: 1: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 3, Singapore 117576., Email: eletankc@nus.edu.sg 2: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 3, Singapore 117576

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