Artificially evolved robots that efficiently self-organize tasks

Artificially evolved robots that efficiently self-organize tasks
Artificially Evolved Robots that Efficiently Self-Organize Tasks Credit: Ferrante et al.

Darwinian selection can be used to evolve robot controllers able to efficiently self-organize their tasks. Taking inspiration from the way in which ants organise their work and divide up tasks, Eliseo Ferrante and colleagues evolved complex robot behaviors using artificial evolution and detailed robotics simulations.

Just like such as ants, bees or termites teams of robots display a self-organized division of labor in which the different robots automatically specialized into carrying out different subtasks in the group, says new research publishing in PLOS Computational Biology.

The field of 'swarm robotics' aims to use teams of to explore complex environments, such as the moon or foreign planets. However, designing controllers that allow the robots to effectively organize themselves is no easy task.

The novel method developed by the team of scientists from the University of Leuven, the Free University of Brussels and the Middle East Technical University is based on grammatical evolution and Allows the evolution of behaviours that go beyond the complexity achieved before this study.

More information: Ferrante E, Turgut AE, Duéñez-Guzmán E, Dorigo M, Wenseleers T (2015) Evolution of Self-Organized Task Specialization in Robot Swarms. PLoS Comput Biol 11(8): e1004273.DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004273

Journal information: PLoS Computational Biology

Citation: Artificially evolved robots that efficiently self-organize tasks (2015, August 6) retrieved 29 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2015-08-artificially-evolved-robots-efficiently-self-organize.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Evolving robot brains

58 shares

Feedback to editors