DOCSLIB.ORG

The Triangle of Life: Evolving Robots in Real-Time and Real-Space Aguston E

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Triangle of Life: Evolving Robots in Real-Time and Real-Space Aguston E The triangle of life: evolving robots in real-time and real-space Aguston E. Eiben, Nicolas Bredeche, Mark Hoogendoorn, Jürgen Stradner, Jon Timmis, Andy Tyrrell, Alan Winfield To cite this version: Aguston E. Eiben, Nicolas Bredeche, Mark Hoogendoorn, Jürgen Stradner, Jon Timmis, et al.. The triangle of life: evolving robots in real-time and real-space. European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2013), 2013, Taormina, Italy. pp.1-8. hal-03175197 HAL Id: hal-03175197 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03175197 Submitted on 19 Mar 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The Triangle of Life: Evolving Robots in Real-time and Real-space A.E. Eiben1, N. Bredeche2;3, M. Hoogendoorn1, J. Stradner4, J. Timmis5, A.M. Tyrrell6, A. Winfield7 1VU University Amsterdam ([email protected], [email protected]) 2UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7222, ISIR, F-75005, Paris, France ([email protected]) 3CNRS, UMR 7222, ISIR, F-75005, Paris, France 4Karl-Franzens University Graz ([email protected]) 5University of York (jon.timmis, [email protected]) 6Bristol Robotics Lab, (alan.winfi[email protected]) Abstract organism) and vice versa. In the traditional setting, being aggregated is a transient state that enables the robots to meet Evolutionary robotics is heading towards fully embodied evo- a certain challenge after which they can disassemble and re- lution in real-time and real-space. In this paper we introduce turn to normal. In contrast, we perceive being aggregated the Triangle of Life, a generic conceptual framework for such systems in which robots can actually reproduce. This frame- as a permanent state and consider aggregated structures as work can be instantiated with different hardware approaches viable robotic organisms with the ability to reproduce. That and different reproduction mechanisms, but in all cases the is, two or more organisms can recombine the (genetic) code system revolves around the conception of a new robot organ- that specifies their makeup and initiate the creation of a new ism. The other components of the Triangle capture the prin- robotic organism. This differs from earlier work aiming at cipal stages of such a system; the Triangle as a whole serves self-replication self-reconfiguration as a guide for realizing this anticipated breakthrough and and in that a ‘child or- building systems where robot morphologies and controllers ganism’ is neither a replica of its parents, nor is it a recon- can evolve in real-time and real-space. After discussing this figured version of one of them. framework and the corresponding vision, we present a case This paper has a twofold objective, 1) to present the Tri- study using the SYMBRION research project that realized angle of Life as a conceptual framework for creating ALife some fragments of such a system in modular robot hardware. of this type and 2) to illustrate how the components of this framework can be implemented in practice. To this end, we Introduction will use the SYMBRION research project1 as a case study, even though originally the project only targeted traditional Evolutionary robotics is heading towards fully embodied swarm-to-organism-to-swarm systems, cf. Levi and Kern- evolution in real-time and real-space. In this paper we in- bach (2010). troduce the Triangle of Life, a general conceptual frame- work that can help build systems where robots can actually reproduce. The framework can be instantiated with differ- Background and related work ent hardware approaches and different reproduction mecha- The ideas in this paper can be considered from three per- nisms. For example, one could use classic mechatronic com- spectives, that of artificial life, evolutionary computing, and ponents and 3D-printing to produce new robots, or a stock (evolutionary) robotics. The modern scientific vision of cre- of autonomous actuated robot modules as raw material and ating artificial life has a long history dating back to the 1987 self-driven aggregation to implement ‘birth’. Santa Fe workshop, cf. Langdon (1989); Levy (1992); Lang- The novelty of this framework lies in the pivotal role of ton (1995). The most prominent streams in the develop- reproduction and conception. The life cycle it captures does ment of the field are traditionally based on wetware (biology not run from birth to death, but from conception to concep- and/or chemistry), software (i.e., computer simulations), and tion and it is repeated in real hardware thus creating ‘robot hardware (that is, robots). In this paper we focus on the third children’ over and over again. This is new in evolved 3D option. The main contribution of the paper from this per- printed robots, where the body structure is printed off-line. spective is the introduction of a new, integrative framework, Even if the design is evolved, the printer only produces the the Triangle of Life, that helps develop and study hardware- end result after evolution is halted (in simulation), whereas based ALife systems. In fact, the Triangle of Life defines a in our framework printing=birth, thus being part of the evo- new category of ALife systems and outlines an interesting lutionary process, rather than following it. avenue for future research. Our approach is also new in self-assembling robot swarms, because existing work traditionally focusses on the 1EU Grant number FP7-ICT-2007.8.2, running between 2008- transition of a swarm into an aggregated structure (a robot 2013. ing nor controller, so were not self-contained autonomous General robots. Only the robot’s physical morphology was evolved. conceptual The use of Lego has featured in evolutionary robot hard- framework ware. Although not evolving complete Lego robots work has described, and indeed attempted to formalise the use of Lego structures for evolution. For example Funes and Pollack Based on Based Possible (1997) describe the simulated evolution, then construction modular on 3D . robo5cs prinng instan5aons using Lego, of physical bridge-like structures. Peysakhov et al. (2000) present a graph grammar for representing and evolving Lego assemblies, and Devert et al. (2006) describe BlindBuilder, an encoding scheme for evolving Lego-like Case study Component 1 Component x structures. in SYMBRION . in SYMBRION Notably Lund (2003) describes the “Building Brains and Bodies approach” and demonstrates the co-evolution of a Lego robot body and its controller in which the evolved Figure 1: Positioning the Triangle of Life, its possible in- robot is physically constructed and tested. Here simulated stantiations in general, and the specific examples used in this evolution explores a robot body space with 3 different wheel paper. types, 25 possible wheel positions and 11 sensor positions. Lund observes that although the body search space is small, with 825 possible solutions, the search space is actually From an evolutionary perspective the framework we ad- much larger when taking into account the co-evolved con- vocate here corresponds to a major transition from evolu- troller parameters. This work is significant because it is, to tionary computing (i.e., artificial evolution in software) to the best of our knowledge, the only example to date of the Embodied Artificial Evolution (i.e., artificial evolution in simulated co-evolution, then physical realisation, of body hardware) as introduced in Eiben et al. (2012). The roadmap morphology and controller for a complete autonomous mo- outlined there considers embodiment in the broad sense, bile robot. including biochemical approaches and treats mechatronics Work by Zykov et al. (2007) describes an evolving mod- based embodied evolution as one of the possible incarna- ular robotic system on the Molecube platform. In this work, tions. The work presented here represents the first detailed self-reproduction is not a necessary prerequisite of evolu- elaboration entirely devoted to that kind of systems. tion, but rather its target. In particular, the authors evolve Finally, the vision behind this paper can also be consid- self-replicators by employing a genetic algorithm (in a 2D ered from the perspective of robotics. The relevant subarea simulation) where the measured amount of self-replication here is evolutionary robotics that has a large body of related is used as an explicit fitness criterion to evaluate morpholo- work, e.g., Nolfi and Floreano (2000); Wang et al. (2006); gies. Then, in a second stage they evolve a command se- Trianni (2008). However, most existing systems in this field quence, i.e., controller, that enables a given morphology to are based on simulations and use evolutionary algorithms as produce an identical copy of itself. However, as yet, there is optimizers in an off-line fashion, during design time. Fur- still no work that has fully demonstrates the online evolution thermore, evolution is usually applied to optimize/design of both structure and function of a modular robotic system, some parts of the robot morphology or the controller, but that is fully embodied in the modules themselves. rarely both of them. In contrast, our vision concerns real A related area with practical relevance to our vision is that hardware, on-line evolution during run time, and it includes of self-organizing robotic systems, Murata and Kurokawa the evolution of both the morphologies and the controllers. (2012). Modular self-reconfigurable robot systems, cf. Yim In the system we envision, new robots are produced contin- et al. (2007), are particularly interesting because they con- uously only limited by the availability of the raw materials stitute one of the possible technologies for implementing the and the capacity of the ‘birth’ mechanism.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Novel Concept for the Study of Heterogeneous Robotic Swarms
    Swarmanoid: a novel concept for the study of heterogeneous robotic swarms M. Dorigo, D. Floreano, L. M. Gambardella, F. Mondada, S. Nolfi, T. Baaboura, M. Birattari, M. Bonani, M. Brambilla, A. Brutschy, D. Burnier, A. Campo, A. L. Christensen, A. Decugni`ere, G. Di Caro, F. Ducatelle, E. Ferrante, A. F¨orster, J. Martinez Gonzales, J. Guzzi, V. Longchamp, S. Magnenat, N. Mathews, M. Montes de Oca, R. O’Grady, C. Pinciroli, G. Pini, P. R´etornaz, J. Roberts, V. Sperati, T. Stirling, A. Stranieri, T. St¨utzle, V. Trianni, E. Tuci, A. E. Turgut, and F. Vaussard. IRIDIA – Technical Report Series Technical Report No. TR/IRIDIA/2011-014 July 2011 IRIDIA – Technical Report Series ISSN 1781-3794 Published by: IRIDIA, Institut de Recherches Interdisciplinaires et de D´eveloppements en Intelligence Artificielle Universite´ Libre de Bruxelles Av F. D. Roosevelt 50, CP 194/6 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium Technical report number TR/IRIDIA/2011-014 The information provided is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the members of IRIDIA. The authors take full responsibility for any copyright breaches that may result from publication of this paper in the IRIDIA – Technical Report Series. IRIDIA is not responsible for any use that might be made of data appearing in this publication. IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE, VOL. X, NO. X, MONTH 20XX 1 Swarmanoid: a novel concept for the study of heterogeneous robotic swarms Marco Dorigo, Dario Floreano, Luca Maria Gambardella, Francesco Mondada, Stefano Nolfi, Tarek Baaboura,
    [Show full text]
  • Bringing Reality to Evolution of Modular Robots: Bio-Inspired Techniques for Building a Simulation Environment in the SYMBRION Project
    Bringing reality to evolution of modular robots: bio-inspired techniques for building a simulation environment in the SYMBRION project Martin Saska and Vojtechˇ Vonasek´ and Miroslav Kulich and Daniel Fiserˇ and Toma´sˇ Krajn´ık and Libor Preuˇ cilˇ Abstract— Two neural network (NN) based techniques for building a simulation environment, which is employed for evolution of modular robots in the Symbrion project, are presented in this paper. The methods are able to build models of real world with variable accuracy and amount of stored information depending upon the performed tasks and evolu- tionary processes. In this paper, the presented algorithms are verified via experiments in scenarios designed to demonstrate the process of autonomous creation of complex artificial organ- Fig. 1. A modular robot overcoming a pit between two ramps. isms. Performance of the methods is compared in experiments with real data and their employability in modular robotics is discussed. Beside these, the entire process of environment data acquisition and pre-processing during the real evolutionary cess of simulation environment building. These required fea- experiments in the Symbrion project will be briefly described. tures will be verified and discussed in the experimental part Finally, a sketch of integration of gained models of environment of this paper. The first requirement is precision of the gained into a simulator, which enables to fasten the evolution of a real complex modular robot, will be introduced. model. Only simulations realised with models matching the reality are meaningful for trials with real robots. Here, one I. INTRODUCTION should mention that important aspects of the model precision are not limited to shape and size of objects in the robots’ A valuable representation of environment is an important workspace only but also additional properties important for part of modular systems aiming to employ evolutionary the simulation of movement and friction of robots on objects’ principles for creating a complex robot from simple au- surfaces need to be considered.
    [Show full text]
  • Interactive Robots in Experimental Biology 3 4 5 6 Jens Krause1,2, Alan F.T
    1 2 Interactive Robots in Experimental Biology 3 4 5 6 Jens Krause1,2, Alan F.T. Winfield3 & Jean-Louis Deneubourg4 7 8 9 10 11 12 1Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Department of Biology and 13 Ecology of Fishes, 12587 Berlin, Germany; 14 2Humboldt-University of Berlin, Department for Crop and Animal Sciences, Philippstrasse 15 13, 10115 Berlin, Germany; 16 3Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol 17 BS16 1QY, UK; 18 4Unit of Social Ecology, Campus Plaine - CP 231, Université libre de Bruxelles, Bd du 19 Triomphe, B-1050 Brussels - Belgium 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Corresponding author: Krause, J. ([email protected]), Leibniz Institute of Freshwater 29 Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Department of the Biology and Ecology of Fishes, 30 Müggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany. 31 32 33 1 33 Interactive robots have the potential to revolutionise the study of social behaviour because 34 they provide a number of methodological advances. In interactions with live animals the 35 behaviour of robots can be standardised, morphology and behaviour can be decoupled (so that 36 different morphologies and behavioural strategies can be combined), behaviour can be 37 manipulated in complex interaction sequences and models of behaviour can be embodied by 38 the robot and thereby be tested. Furthermore, robots can be used as demonstrators in 39 experiments on social learning. The opportunities that robots create for new experimental 40 approaches have far-reaching consequences for research in fields such as mate choice, 41 cooperation, social learning, personality studies and collective behaviour.
    [Show full text]
  • On Adaptive Self-Organization in Artificial Robot Organisms
    On adaptive self-organization in artificial robot organisms Serge Kernbach∗, Heiko Hamann†, Jurgen¨ Stradner†, Ronald Thenius†, Thomas Schmickl†, Karl Crailsheim†, A.C. van Rossum‡, Michele Sebag§, Nicolas Bredeche§, Yao Yao¶, Guy Baele¶, Yves Van de Peer¶, Jon Timmisk, Maizura Mohktark, Andy Tyrrellk, A.E. Eiben∗∗, S.P. McKibbin††, Wenguo Liu‡‡, Alan F.T. Winfield‡‡ ∗Institute of Parallel and Distributed Systems, University of Stuttgart, Germany, [email protected] †Artificial Life Lab, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Universitatsplatz 2, A-8010 Graz, Austria, {heiko.hamann,juergen.stradner,ronald.thenius,thomas.schmickl,karl.crailsheim}@uni-graz.at ‡Almende B.V., 3016 DJ Rotterdam, Netherlands, [email protected] §TAO, LRI, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS, INRIA Saclay, France, {Michele.Sebag, Nicolas.Bredeche}@lri.fr ¶VIB Department Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University, Belgium, {Yao.Yao, Guy.Baele, Yves.VandePeer}@psb.vib-ugent.be kUniversity of York, York, United Kingdom, {mm520, jt517, amt}@ohm.york.ac.uk ∗∗Free University Amsterdam, [email protected] ††Materials and Engineering Research Institute (MERI), Sheffield Hallam University, [email protected] ‡‡Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), UWE Bristol, {wenguo.liu, alan.winfield}@uwe.ac.uk Abstract—In Nature, self-organization demonstrates very reliable and scalable collective behavior in a distributed fash- ion. In collective robotic systems, self-organization makes it possible to address both the problem of adaptation to quickly changing environment and compliance with user-defined target objectives. This paper describes on-going work on artificial self-organization within artificial robot organisms, performed in the framework of the Symbrion and Replicator European projects. (a) (b) Keywords-adaptive system, self-adaptation, adaptive self- organization, collective robotics, artificial organisms I.
    [Show full text]
  • Science & Technology Trends 2020-2040
    Science & Technology Trends 2020-2040 Exploring the S&T Edge NATO Science & Technology Organization DISCLAIMER The research and analysis underlying this report and its conclusions were conducted by the NATO S&T Organization (STO) drawing upon the support of the Alliance’s defence S&T community, NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA). This report does not represent the official opinion or position of NATO or individual governments, but provides considered advice to NATO and Nations’ leadership on significant S&T issues. D.F. Reding J. Eaton NATO Science & Technology Organization Office of the Chief Scientist NATO Headquarters B-1110 Brussels Belgium http:\www.sto.nato.int Distributed free of charge for informational purposes; hard copies may be obtained on request, subject to availability from the NATO Office of the Chief Scientist. The sale and reproduction of this report for commercial purposes is prohibited. Extracts may be used for bona fide educational and informational purposes subject to attribution to the NATO S&T Organization. Unless otherwise credited all non-original graphics are used under Creative Commons licensing (for original sources see https://commons.wikimedia.org and https://www.pxfuel.com/). All icon-based graphics are derived from Microsoft® Office and are used royalty-free. Copyright © NATO Science & Technology Organization, 2020 First published, March 2020 Foreword As the world Science & Tech- changes, so does nology Trends: our Alliance. 2020-2040 pro- NATO adapts. vides an assess- We continue to ment of the im- work together as pact of S&T ad- a community of vances over the like-minded na- next 20 years tions, seeking to on the Alliance.
    [Show full text]
  • Roombots: a Hardware Perspective on 3D Self-Reconfiguration and Locomotion with a Homogeneous Modular Robot A
    Robotics and Autonomous Systems 62 (2014) 1016–1033 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Robotics and Autonomous Systems journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/robot Roombots: A hardware perspective on 3D self-reconfiguration and locomotion with a homogeneous modular robot A. Spröwitz ∗, R. Moeckel, M. Vespignani, S. Bonardi, A.J. Ijspeert Biorobotics laboratory, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL STI IBI BIOROB Station 14, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland h i g h l i g h t s • We designed, implemented, and tested the Roombots (RB) modular robots. • We explain the RB design methodology: active connection mechanism and module. • RB use locomotion on-grid (lattice-based environment), and off-grid locomotion. • RB join into metamodules on-grid, and can transit from off-grid to on-grid. • We demonstrate RB overcoming concave and convex edges, and climbing vertical walls. article info a b s t r a c t Article history: In this work we provide hands-on experience on designing and testing a self-reconfiguring modular Available online 2 September 2013 robotic system, Roombots (RB), to be used among others for adaptive furniture. In the long term, we envision that RB can be used to create sets of furniture, such as stools, chairs and tables that can move in Keywords: their environment and that change shape and functionality during the day. In this article, we present the Self-reconfiguring first, incremental results towards that long term vision. We demonstrate locomotion and reconfiguration Modular robots Active connection mechanism of single and metamodule RB over 3D surfaces, in a structured environment equipped with embedded Module joining connection ports.
    [Show full text]
  • Roborobo! a Fast Robot Simulator for Swarm and Collective Robotics
    Roborobo! a Fast Robot Simulator for Swarm and Collective Robotics Nicolas Bredeche Jean-Marc Montanier UPMC, CNRS NTNU Paris, France Trondheim, Norway [email protected] [email protected] Berend Weel Evert Haasdijk Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Netherlands The Netherlands [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT lators such as Breve [11] and Simbad [9], by focusing solely on swarm and aggregate of robotic units, focusing on large- Roborobo! is a multi-platform, highly portable, robot simu- 1 lator for large-scale collective robotics experiments. Roborobo! scale population of robots in 2-dimensional worlds rather is coded in C++, and follows the KISS guideline (”Keep it than more complex 3-dimensional models. C simple”). Therefore, its external dependency is solely lim- Roborobo! is written in + + with the multi-platform ited to the widely available SDL library for fast 2D Graphics. SDL graphics library [22] as unique dependency, enabling Roborobo! is based on a Khepera/ePuck model. It is tar- easy and fast deployment. It has been tested on a large set of geted for fast single and multi-robots simulation, and has platforms (PC, Mac, OpenPandora [20], Raspberry Pi [21]) already been used in more than a dozen published research and operating systems (Linux, MacOS X, MS Windows). It mainly concerned with evolutionary swarm robotics, includ- has also been deployed on large clusters, such as the french ing environment-driven self-adaptation and distributed evo- Grid5000 [4] national clusters. Roborobo! has been initiated lutionary optimization, as well as online onboard embodied in 2009 and is used on a daily basis in several universities evolution and embodied morphogenesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Symbrion Blurb
    On-the-Fly Evolution for Robots Keywords: evolutionary robotics, evolu- On-line, on-board adaptation tionary algorithms, modular robotics On-line is the keyword here: the EA monitors Imagine a collection of small, relatively sim- and refines the robot controllers as the robots ple, autonomous robots that collectively have go about their regular tasks. This is a major to perform various complex tasks. To achieve departure from ‘traditional’ evolutionary ro- their goals, the robots can move about indi- botics, where the controllers are developed vidually, but more importantly, they can off-line, and remain fixed once the robots are physically attach to each other to form and deployed actually to perform their tasks. manipulate multi-robot organisms for tasks An on-line, on-board EA has to address a that an unconnected group of individual ro- number of uncommon impositions such as bots cannot cope with. Think, for instance, of very limited resources, in terms of both proc- scaling a wall or holding a relatively large ob- essing power and memory space, a focus on ject. average rather than best performance and the One of the advantages of a swarm of simpler need for on-line parameter control. robots is the increased robustness compared We have developed two algorithms specifically to complex monolithic systems: if a single to address these issues; an encapsulated (i.e., robot fails, the swarm can pretty much carry running within a single robot) and a distrib- on regardless. Also, the robots can reconfig- uted (over multiple robots) on-line EA. Both ure the organism to suit particular tasks and have been validated in a number of experi- circumstances, something that large and com- ments, with further experiments to combine them underway.
    [Show full text]
  • Comprehensive Review on Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot Architecture
    International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 06 Issue: 04 | Apr 2019 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 Comprehensive Review on Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot Architecture Muhammad Haziq Hasbulah1, Fairul Azni Jafar2, Mohd. Hisham Nordin2 1Centre for Graduate Studies, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia 2Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - Self-reconfigurable modular robot is a new film directed by William Don Hall. In this movie, a character approach of robotic system which involves a group of identical named Hiro create a lot of Microbots that able to be robotic modules that are connecting together and forming controlled by neurotransmitter. They are designed by Hiro to structure that able to perform specific tasks. Such robotic connect together to form various shapes and perform tasks system will allows for reconfiguration of the robot and its cooperatively Hall and Williams [3]. The idea of that movie structure in order to adapting continuously to the current concept is multiple robots that able to change shape in group needs or specific tasks, without the use of additional tools. being controlled by human thought. Nowadays, the use of this type of robot is very limited because The MSR robot is build based on the electronics components, it is at the early stage of technology development. This type of computer processors, and memory and power supplies, and robots will probably be widely used in industry, search and also they might have a feature for the robot to have an ability rescue purpose or even on leisure activities in the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Algorithmic Requirements for Swarm Intelligence in Differently Coupled Collective Systems
    Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 50 (2013) 100–114 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Chaos, Solitons & Fractals Nonlinear Science, and Nonequilibrium and Complex Phenomena journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chaos Algorithmic requirements for swarm intelligence in differently coupled collective systems Jürgen Stradner a, Ronald Thenius a, Payam Zahadat a, Heiko Hamann a,b, Karl Crailsheim a, ⇑ Thomas Schmickl a, a Artificial Life Laboratory at the Department of Zoology, Karl-Franzens University Graz, Universitätsplatz 2, A-8010 Graz, Austria b Department of Computer Science, University of Paderborn, Zukunftsmeile 1, 33102 Paderborn, Germany article info abstract Article history: Swarm systems are based on intermediate connectivity between individuals and dynamic Available online 7 March 2013 neighborhoods. In natural swarms self-organizing principles bring their agents to that favorable level of connectivity. They serve as interesting sources of inspiration for control algorithms in swarm robotics on the one hand, and in modular robotics on the other hand. In this paper we demonstrate and compare a set of bio-inspired algorithms that are used to control the collective behavior of swarms and modular systems: BEECLUST, AHHS (hormone controllers), FGRN (fractal genetic regulatory networks), and VE (virtual embryo- genesis). We demonstrate how such bio-inspired control paradigms bring their host sys- tems to a level of intermediate connectivity, what delivers sufficient robustness to these systems for collective decentralized control. In parallel, these algorithms allow sufficient volatility of shared information within these systems to help preventing local optima and deadlock situations, this way keeping those systems flexible and adaptive in dynamic non-deterministic environments. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd.
    [Show full text]
  • Interactive Robots in Experimental Biology
    Review Interactive robots in experimental biology Jens Krause1,2, Alan F.T. Winfield3 and Jean-Louis Deneubourg4 1 Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, 12587 Berlin, Germany 2 Humboldt-University of Berlin, Department for Crop and Animal Sciences, Philippstrasse 13, 10115 Berlin, Germany 3 Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, UK, BS16 1QY 4 Unit of Social Ecology, Campus Plaine - CP 231, Universite´ libre de Bruxelles, Bd du Triomphe, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium Interactive robots have the potential to revolutionise the the behaviour of one or more individuals in a group or study of social behaviour because they provide several population) is to fit a live animal with interactive technol- methodological advances. In interactions with live ani- ogy so that one animal in a group is effectively controlled as mals, the behaviour of robots can be standardised, mor- the ‘robot’ that interacts with its conspecifics. A brief phology and behaviour can be decoupled (so that overview of robots and interactive technologies is provided different morphologies and behavioural strategies can in Box 1. be combined), behaviour can be manipulated in complex Here, we give an overview of interactive robotics for use in interaction sequences and models of behaviour can be experimental biology, focusing on social behaviour. This embodied by the robot and thereby be tested. Further- approach has been successfully used across the animal more, robots can be used as demonstrators in experi- kingdom ranging from studies on social insects [6,7] and ments on social learning.
    [Show full text]
  • 3D Printing Quarterly Report—Q32018 3D PRINTING–A FAST MOVING MARKET Developments in 3D Printing a Sector by Sector Overview
    3D Printing Quarterly Report—Q32018 3D PRINTING–A FAST MOVING MARKET Developments in 3D Printing A Sector by Sector Overview Overview This report explores developments in 3D printing across several sectors and categories for the quarterly period of July 1 to October 10, 2018. For more information, Table of Contents please contact: Overview ................................... 2 Patents & Copyright ................. 12 Food ....................................... 21 Mark E. Avsec General ..................................... 2 Auto & Transportation ............... 12 Consumer Goods & Retail ......... 22 (216) 363-4151 Materials ................................... 4 Aviation & Aerospace ............... 13 Education ................................ 23 [email protected] Printing Techniques & Health & Life Sciences ............. 14 Environmental Efforts ............... 24 Capabilities .............................. 5 Manufacturing & Construction... 17 Arts & Entertainment ................ 25 M&A and Investments ................ 9 Clothing & Wearables ............... 20 Sports ..................................... 25 www.beneschlaw.com Miscellaneous Partnerships ...... 11 3D PRINTING–A FAST MOVING MARKET 3D Printing Quarterly Report—Q3 A Sector by Sector Overview General Aurora Group to market Nano Dimension 3D printers in China The deal expands Nano Dimension’s already active presence in Asia Pacific beyond Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Founded in 2012, Nano Dimensions develops and manufactures 3D printers for the electronics
    [Show full text]