Abstract
The discrepancy between simulated and hardware experiments, the reality gap, is a challenge in evolutionary robotics. While strategies have been proposed to address this gap in fixed-body robots, they are not viable when dealing with populations and generations where the body is in constant change. The continual evolution of body designs necessitates the manufacturing of new robotic structures, a process that can be time-consuming if carried out manually. Moreover, the increased manufacturing time not only prolongs hardware experimental durations but also disrupts the synergy between hardware and simulated experiments. Failure to effectively manage these challenges could impede the implementation of evolutionary robotics in real-life environments. The Autonomous Robot Evolution project presents a framework to tackle these challenges through a case study. This paper describes the main three contributions of this work: Firstly, it analyses the different reality gap experienced by each different robot or the heterogenous reality gap. Secondly, it emphasizes the importance of automation in robot manufacturing. And thirdly, it highlights the necessity of a framework to orchestrate the synergy between simulated and hardware experiments. In the long term, integrating these contributions into evolutionary robotics is envisioned to enable the continuous production of robots in real-world environments.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 157 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-19 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Robotics |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 11 |
Early online date | 25 Oct 2024 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2024 |
Bibliographical note
This article belongs to the Special Issue: Progress and Prospects of Evolutionary Robotics.Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.
Keywords
- automation
- evolution of things
- evolutionary robotics
- reality gap
- software-hardware synergy