Title
Behavioral Specialization in Embodied Evolutionary Robotics: Why So Difficult?
Abstract
Embodied evolutionary robotics is an on-line distributed learning method used in collective robotics where robots are facing open environments. This paper focuses on learning behavioral specialization, as defined by robots being able to demonstrate different kind of behaviors at the same time (e.g., division of labor). Using a foraging task with two resources available in limited quantities, we show that behavioral specialization is unlikely to evolve in the general case, unless very specific conditions are met regarding interactions between robots (a very sparse communication network is required) and the expected outcome of specialization (specialization into groups of similar sizes is easier to achieve). We also show that the population size (the larger the better) as well as the selection scheme used (favoring exploration over exploitation) both play important-though not always mandatory-roles. This research sheds light on why existing embodied evolution algorithms are limited with respect to learning efficient division of labor in the general case, i.e., where it is not possible to guess before deployment if behavioral specialization is required or not, and gives directions to overcome current limitations.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.3389/frobt.2016.00038
FRONTIERS IN ROBOTICS AND AI
Keywords
Field
DocType
embodied evolution,evolutionary robotics,behavioral specialization,division of labor,distributed online learning,collective behavior
Collective behavior,Telecommunications network,Software deployment,Evolutionary robotics,Computer science,Embodied cognition,Human–computer interaction,Artificial intelligence,Robot,Division of labour,Machine learning,Robotics
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
3.0
2296-9144
4
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.46
13
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jean-Marc Montanier1718.03
Simon Carrignon251.51
Nicolas Bredeche326933.86