The Evolution of Cooperative Behaviours in Physically Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems

Abstract

Evolutionary Robotics (ER) is a methodology that uses evolutionary computation to develop controllers for autonomous robots. The existing works focus on single robot systems or physically homogenous multi-robot teams, although physical heterogeneousness is more prevalent in the real world. It is therefore instructive to examine whether cooperative behaviours can be synthesized using artificial evolution for a team of physically heterogeneous robots. This paper makes an important contribution in answering the question of whether robots with distinct capabilities can synthesize their control strategies to accommodate their own capabilities without human intervention. We present an empirical analysis of the collaboration mechanisms and suggest guidelines about how to choose appropriate evolution methods. Simulated experiments with a team of e-puck robots show that evolution can lead to effective controllers for robots with distinct capabilities.