Abstract
The complexity of a legged robot’s environment or task can inform how specialised its gait must be to ensure success. Evolving specialised robotic gaits demands many evaluations—acceptable for computer simulations, but not for physical robots. For some tasks, a more general gait, with lower optimization costs, could be satisfactory. In this paper, we introduce a new type of gait controller where complexity can be set by a single parameter, using a dynamic genotype-phenotype mapping. Low controller complexity leads to conservative gaits, while higher complexity allows more sophistication and high performance for demanding tasks, at the cost of optimization effort. We investigate the new controller on a virtual robot in simulations and do preliminary testing on a real-world robot. We show that having variable complexity allows us to adapt to different optimization budgets. With a high evaluation budget in simulation, a complex controller performs best. Moreover, real-world evolution with a limited evaluation budget indicates that a lower gait complexity is preferable for a relatively simple environment.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Applications of Evolutionary Computation |
Subtitle of host publication | 22nd International Conference, EvoApplications 2019, Held as Part of EvoStar 2019, Leipzig, Germany, April 24–26, 2019, Proceedings |
Editors | Paul Kaufmann, Pedro A. Castillo |
Place of Publication | Cham |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 616-632 |
Number of pages | 17 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-030-16692-2 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-3-030-16691-5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 22nd International Conference on Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EvoApplications 2019, held as Part of EvoStar 2019 - Leipzig, Germany Duration: 24 Apr 2019 → 26 Apr 2019 http://www.evostar.org/2019/ |
Publication series
Name | Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) |
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Publisher | Springer |
Volume | 11454 |
ISSN (Print) | 0302-9743 |
ISSN (Electronic) | 1611-3349 |
Conference
Conference | 22nd International Conference on Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EvoApplications 2019, held as Part of EvoStar 2019 |
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Abbreviated title | EvoApplications 2019 |
Country/Territory | Germany |
City | Leipzig |
Period | 24/04/19 → 26/04/19 |
Internet address |