Towards the autonomous evolution of robot ecosystems

Abstract

Mobile robots are increasingly part of the fabric of everyday life, with applications that range from maintenance of underwater infrastructure, through increasing productivity in manufacturing and warehouse logistics operations to cleaning our homes. For most of these tasks, robots are designed and programmed by human engineers. While they might not have complete knowledge of the situations/tasks they might come across, the robots operate in environments that are to a large extent predictable. Therefore, it is possible to design bodies with sensors and actuators that seem appropriate and to program controllers that provide some level of adaptive behaviour. But what if one wants to send a robot to operate in an unknown environment whose characteristics are unknown or inaccessible or dangerous for humans? To clean up inside a nuclear reactor, for example, mine for minerals at the bottom of the ocean, or explore an asteroid whose surface is unmapped? If a technology could be produced that could design and fabricate robots in-situ, not only could this avoid wasted effort, it could lead to robots uniquely adapted to their environment.