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4

Evolutionary Robotics and
Open-Ended Design Automation

Hod Lipson

CONTENTS
4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 129
4.1.1 Structure of This Chapter ....................................................................................................... 131
4.2 A Simple Model of Evolutionary Adaptation...................................................................................... 131
4.3 Machine Bodies and Brains ................................................................................................................. 132
4.3.1 Evolving Controllers............................................................................................................... 132
4.3.2 Evolving Controllers and Some Aspects of the Morphology ................................................ 135
4.3.3 Evolving Bodies and Brains ................................................................................................... 136
4.4 Morphology Representations ............................................................................................................... 138
4.4.1 Tree Representations............................................................................................................... 138
4.4.2 Developmental Representations ............................................................................................. 140
4.4.3 Regulatory Network Representations..................................................................................... 143
4.5 Evolving Machines in Physical Reality............................................................................................... 144
4.5.1 Evolving Controllers for Physical Morphologies................................................................... 144
4.5.2 Making Morphological Changes in Hardware ....................................................................... 147
4.6 The Economy of Design Automation .................................................................................................. 147
4.7 Future Challenges................................................................................................................................. 150
4.7.1 Principles of Design................................................................................................................ 151
4.7.2 Research Methodology ........................................................................................................... 152
4.8 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................................... 153
4.9 Further Reading.................................................................................................................................... 153
References....................................................................................................................................................... 153

4.1 INTRODUCTION

Can a computer ultimately augment or replace human invention?
Imagine a Lego set at your disposal: Bricks, rods, wheels, motors, sensors, and logic are your
‘‘atomic’’ building blocks, and you must find a way to put them together to achieve a given high-
level functionality: A machine that can move itself, say. You know the physics of the individual
components’ behaviors; you know the repertoire of pieces available, and you know how they
are allowed to connect. But how do you determine the combination that gives you the desired

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