Analysing an evolved robotic behaviour using a biological model of collegial decision making

Gianpiero Francesca, Manuele Brambilla, Vito Trianni, Marco Dorigo, and Mauro Birattari
March 2012


This page contains all supplementary information that was not possible to included in the paper.

Table of Contents
  1. Paper Abstract
  2. Controllers performance
  3. Simulation Videos
  4. Download the Videos

Paper Abstract

Evolutionary Robotics can be a powerful tool in studies on the evolutionary origins of self-organising behaviours in biological systems. However, these studies are viable only when the behaviour of the evolved artificial system closely corresponds to the one observed in biology, as described by available models. In this paper, we compare the behaviour evolved in a robotic system with the collegial decision making displayed by cockroaches in selecting a resting shelter. We show that artificial evolution can synthesise a simple self-organising behaviour for a swarm of robots, which presents dynamics that are comparable with the cockroaches behaviour.


Keywords: Swarm robotics, Evolutionary Robotics, Aggregation



Controllers performance

Performance of the best controllers for each evolutionary run (average and stardard deviation over 200 trials)



Simulation Videos

All the simulated experiments have been performed using the ARGoS simulator. All videos are in real time.



Simulated video with 10 robots, radius 0.35cm, d = 2.90


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Simulated video with 10 robots, radius 0.50cm, d = 4.72

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Simulated video with 5 robots, radius 0.35cm, d = 5.81

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Simulated video with 20 robots, radius 0.35cm, d = 1.45

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Download the Videos

Simulated video with 10 robots, radius 0.35cm, d = 2.90

Simulated video with 10 robots, radius 0.50cm, d = 4.72

Simulated video with 5 robots, radius 0.35cm, d = 5.81

Simulated video with 20 robots, radius 0.35cm, d = 1.45