开放环境下机器人形态学与控制器的协同优化
Co-optimising Robot Morphology and Controller in a Simulated Open-Ended Environment
摘要：
手工设计机器人可能既昂贵又耗时，特别是如果机器人必须用新材料制造，或者对内部或外部变化具有鲁棒性。为了在不需要人为干预的情况下自动创建机器人，有必要优化机器人的行为和身体设计。然而，当共同优化的形态和控制器的移动代理的形态往往过早收敛，达到局部最优。诸如明确保护形态创新的方法已被用于减少这一问题，但也可能使用更间接的方法来增加对形态的探索。我们探讨如何改变环境，代理运动，影响形态的收敛。智能体的形态和控制器是协同优化的，而智能体所处的环境则是通过成对开放式开拓者（POET）开放式地进化的。我们比较的多样性，健身和鲁棒性的代理在POET产生的环境中演变的代理在手工制作的课程的环境。我们的代理人都包含一个人口的个人正在演变的遗传算法。这个种群被称为代理种群。我们发现，在开放式的不断发展的环境中发展的代理人口表现出更大的形态多样性比代理人口在手工制作的环境课程。POET证明能够创建一个鼓励人口多样性和质量的环境课程。这表明POET可能能够减少形态和控制器的协同优化中的过早收敛。
英文摘要：
Designing robots by hand can be costly and time consuming, especially if the robots have to be created with novel materials, or be robust to internal or external changes. In order to create robots automatically, without the need for human intervention, it is necessary to optimise both the behaviour and the body design of the robot. However, when co-optimising the morphology and controller of a locomoting agent the morphology tends to converge prematurely, reaching a local optimum. Approaches such as explicit protection of morphological innovation have been used to reduce this problem, but it might also be possible to increase exploration of morphologies using a more indirect approach. We explore how changing the environment, where the agent locomotes, affects the convergence of morphologies. The agents' morphologies and controllers are co-optimised, while the environments the agents locomote in are evolved open-endedly with the Paired Open-Ended Trailblazer (POET). We compare the diversity, fitness and robustness of agents evolving in environments generated by POET to agents evolved in handcrafted curricula of environments. Our agents each contain of a population of individuals being evolved with a genetic algorithm. This population is called the agent-population. We show that agent-populations evolving in open-endedly evolving environments exhibit larger morphological diversity than agent-populations evolving in hand crafted curricula of environments. POET proved capable of creating a curriculum of environments which encouraged both diversity and quality in the populations. This suggests that POET may be capable of reducing premature convergence in co-optimisation of morphology and controllers.
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