Autonomous Robot Evolution: Cradle To Grave
Lead Research Organisation:
Edinburgh Napier University
Department Name: Computing
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Emma Hart (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Buchanan E
(2020)
Bootstrapping Artificial Evolution to Design Robots for Autonomous Fabrication
in Robotics
Buchanan E
(2020)
Evolution of Diverse, Manufacturable Robot Body Plans
Eiben A
(2020)
If it evolves it needs to learn
Hale M
(2020)
Hardware Design for Autonomous Robot Evolution
Hart E
(2022)
Artificial evolution of robot bodies and control: on the interaction between evolution, learning and culture.
in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Le Goff L
(2023)
Morpho Evolution With Learning Using a Controller Archive as an Inheritance Mechanism
in IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems
Li W
(2023)
Evaluation of Frameworks That Combine Evolution and Learning to Design Robots in Complex Morphological Spaces
in IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
| Description | The project has demonstrated that it is possible to design a complete robot (body and brain) using a fully autonomous system based on the principles of natural evolution. We have developed a framework in which hybridises artificial evolution in software and hardware to create blueprints for robots that are optimised for solving a particular task. The evolved designs are autonomously manufactured using a robotic arm, hence the entire system can operate without a human in the loop. The robot consist of a 3d printed plastic chassis to which a variety of sensors and actuators can be attached. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that evolution of a complete robot with closed loop control in a rich morphological space has been demonstrated. The evolved robots are capable of completing simple tasks such as maze navigation and targeted locomotion. The framework could be adapted by other researchers. A number of challenges were overcome: from the hardware perspective, a significant amount of effort was put into the engineering design of components to ensure the robots could be reliably assembled by the automated arm. From the software perspective, a number of advances in evolutionary algorithms were made in order to address the issue of evolving designs that were manufacturable, and to allow evolved 'brains' to quickly adapt to new complex bodies, which required mixing learning with evolution. A number of open questions arise from the results, for example (1)i how the learning phase can be made more efficient so that robots learn more quickly (2) how to minimise the reality-gap and (3) how to enable evolution to mantain sufficient diversity within an evolving population to enable very complex forms/brains to emerge |
| Exploitation Route | The results could be taken forward by sectors which require the use of roots that are capable of adapting autonomously to previously unseen environment and to unexpected scenarios. This has future applications for example in space (robots for exploring planets etc) and in environmental applications (e..g monitoring or exploration in harsh environments such as glaciers/forests that are hard to reach by humans. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/robot-lab/are/ |
| Description | There have been a number of "popular press" articles written about the project, e.g. in the Guardian, the Telegraph, The Scotsman, The New Scientist Demonstrations have been given at York Festival of Ideas in 2019. Prof. Hart gave a TED talk about the work in the project at TEDWomen 2021 As a result of this media attention, the work has been brought to the attention of potential end users (e.g Prof. Hart was invited to give a talk to the European Space Agency) |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Article in Daily Telegraph about the project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Article in which Prof Hart and Prof Winfield were interviewed re the research undertaken in the project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/03/14/british-engineers-creating-self-replicating-robots... |
| Description | Article in Technology Magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | article in German edition of magazine "Technology Review" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.heise.de/tr/artikel/Darwins-Maschinen-4404076.html |
| Description | Article in national newspaper (the Scotsman) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Article in Scottish national newspaper the Scotsman discussing the project and its implications |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/robots-are-being-redesigned-by-computer-programs-th... |
| Description | Article in the Conversation: We're teaching robots to evolve autonomously - so they can adapt to life alone on distant planets |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | The article was published in the Conversation. It had over 7000 reads in one week and over 16000 reads in the first 3 weeks. It was shared 617 times from the Conversation site. It was republished in Italian and in Hungarian |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/were-teaching-robots-to-evolve-autonomously-so-they-can-adapt-to-life-al... |
| Description | Department open day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | talk and demonstration of project results at an UG open day |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Feature article in New Scientist |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Feature article in New Scientist ( Vol. 253 Issue 3375, 25th Feb 2022) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25333751-700-meet-the-robots-that-can-reproduce-learn-and-evo... |
| Description | Guardian article describing research in ARE project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Guardian article (authored by Emma Hart) : created much discussion online and resulted in several other newspapers running articles that reported on this |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/21/robots-reproduce-evolution-nature-technology |
| Description | Invited Seminar: University of La Laguna Tenerife |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | An invited talk at the Latest Advances in Computer Science series of seminars at University La Laguna |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Keynote talk at International conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Keynote talk at major international conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://wcci2022.org/invited-speakers/ |
| Description | Keynote talk at major international conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Keynote talk at IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation in Wellington New Zealand centred on the project work describing it to an international audience. The title was "Toward Autonomous Evolution of Robotic Ecosystems" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://ieeetv.ieee.org/conference-highlights/towards-the-autonomous-evolution-of-robotic-ecosystems... |