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MAP-Elites Enables Powerful Stepping Stones and Diversity for Modular Robotics
In modular robotics modules can be reconfigured to change the morphology of the robot, making it able to adapt to specific tasks. However, optimizing both the body and control of such robots is a difficult challenge due to the intricate relationship between fine-tuning control and morphological chan...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8115726/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33996926 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.639173 |
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author | Nordmoen, Jørgen Veenstra, Frank Ellefsen, Kai Olav Glette, Kyrre |
author_facet | Nordmoen, Jørgen Veenstra, Frank Ellefsen, Kai Olav Glette, Kyrre |
author_sort | Nordmoen, Jørgen |
collection | PubMed |
description | In modular robotics modules can be reconfigured to change the morphology of the robot, making it able to adapt to specific tasks. However, optimizing both the body and control of such robots is a difficult challenge due to the intricate relationship between fine-tuning control and morphological changes that can invalidate such optimizations. These challenges can trap many optimization algorithms in local optima, halting progress towards better solutions. To solve this challenge we compare three different Evolutionary Algorithms on their capacity to optimize high performing and diverse morphologies and controllers in modular robotics. We compare two objective-based search algorithms, with and without a diversity promoting objective, with a Quality Diversity algorithm—MAP-Elites. The results show that MAP-Elites is capable of evolving the highest performing solutions in addition to generating the largest morphological diversity. Further, MAP-Elites is superior at regaining performance when transferring the population to new and more difficult environments. By analyzing genealogical ancestry we show that MAP-Elites produces more diverse and higher performing stepping stones than the two other objective-based search algorithms. The experiments transitioning the populations to new environments show the utility of morphological diversity, while the analysis of stepping stones show a strong correlation between diversity of ancestry and maximum performance on the locomotion task. Together, these results demonstrate the suitability of MAP-elites for the challenging task of morphology-control search for modular robots, and shed light on the algorithm’s capability of generating stepping stones for reaching high-performing solutions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8115726 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-81157262021-05-13 MAP-Elites Enables Powerful Stepping Stones and Diversity for Modular Robotics Nordmoen, Jørgen Veenstra, Frank Ellefsen, Kai Olav Glette, Kyrre Front Robot AI Robotics and AI In modular robotics modules can be reconfigured to change the morphology of the robot, making it able to adapt to specific tasks. However, optimizing both the body and control of such robots is a difficult challenge due to the intricate relationship between fine-tuning control and morphological changes that can invalidate such optimizations. These challenges can trap many optimization algorithms in local optima, halting progress towards better solutions. To solve this challenge we compare three different Evolutionary Algorithms on their capacity to optimize high performing and diverse morphologies and controllers in modular robotics. We compare two objective-based search algorithms, with and without a diversity promoting objective, with a Quality Diversity algorithm—MAP-Elites. The results show that MAP-Elites is capable of evolving the highest performing solutions in addition to generating the largest morphological diversity. Further, MAP-Elites is superior at regaining performance when transferring the population to new and more difficult environments. By analyzing genealogical ancestry we show that MAP-Elites produces more diverse and higher performing stepping stones than the two other objective-based search algorithms. The experiments transitioning the populations to new environments show the utility of morphological diversity, while the analysis of stepping stones show a strong correlation between diversity of ancestry and maximum performance on the locomotion task. Together, these results demonstrate the suitability of MAP-elites for the challenging task of morphology-control search for modular robots, and shed light on the algorithm’s capability of generating stepping stones for reaching high-performing solutions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8115726/ /pubmed/33996926 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.639173 Text en Copyright © 2021 Nordmoen, Veenstra, Ellefsen and Glette. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Robotics and AI Nordmoen, Jørgen Veenstra, Frank Ellefsen, Kai Olav Glette, Kyrre MAP-Elites Enables Powerful Stepping Stones and Diversity for Modular Robotics |
title | MAP-Elites Enables Powerful Stepping Stones and Diversity for Modular Robotics |
title_full | MAP-Elites Enables Powerful Stepping Stones and Diversity for Modular Robotics |
title_fullStr | MAP-Elites Enables Powerful Stepping Stones and Diversity for Modular Robotics |
title_full_unstemmed | MAP-Elites Enables Powerful Stepping Stones and Diversity for Modular Robotics |
title_short | MAP-Elites Enables Powerful Stepping Stones and Diversity for Modular Robotics |
title_sort | map-elites enables powerful stepping stones and diversity for modular robotics |
topic | Robotics and AI |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8115726/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33996926 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.639173 |
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