From Virtual Creatures to Feasible Robots

This paper provides a brief description of the robots obtained using the evolutionary design system called EDHMoR (Evolutionary Designer of Heterogeneous Modular Robots) that are displayed in the corresponding video [1]. This system is based on the coevolution of morphology and control with the main objective of obtaining feasible and manufacturable robots. To this end, a modular architecture has been defined and implemented [2], which faces real hardware issues and promotes the evolvability of the robotic structures by considering heterogeneous modules with a large number of connection faces per module. These modules constitute the building blocks the EDHMoR system uses to design the robots. Moreover, an evaluation methodology is proposed as a key element of EDMHoR, which is based on modifications in the environment that can produce more useful and realistic robots without limiting the search space. The video shows some of the resulting robots for two different tasks, painting a surface and walking, and the influence of these modifications. Finally, some real tests of these morphologies are presented.