On-Line, On-Board Evolution of Robot Controllers

This paper reports on a feasibility study into the evolution of robot controllers during the actual operation of robots (on-line), using only the computational resources within the robots themselves (on-board). We identify the main challenges that these restrictions imply and propose mechanisms to handle them. The resulting algorithm is evaluated in a hybrid system, using the actual robots' processors interfaced with a simulator that represents the environment. The results show that the proposed algorithm is indeed feasible and the particular problems we encountered during this study give hints for further research.