Evolutionary Humanoid Robotics

This book examines how two distinct strands of research on autonomous robots, evolutionary robotics and humanoid robot research, are converging. The book will be valuable for researchers and postgraduate students working in the areas of evolutionary robotics and bio-inspired computing.

This invaluable book comprehensively describes evolutionary robotics and computational intelligence, and how different computational intelligence techniques are applied to robotic system design. It embraces the most widely used evolutionary approaches with their merits and drawbacks, presents some related experiments for robotic behavior evolution and the results achieved, and shows promising future research directions. Clarity of explanation is emphasized such that a modest knowledge of basic evolutionary computation, digital circuits and engineering design will suffice for a thorough understanding of the material. The book is ideally suited to computer scientists, practitioners and researchers keen on computational intelligence techniques, especially the evolutionary algorithms in autonomous robotics at both the hardware and software levels. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Artificial Evolution Based Autonomous Robot Navigation (184 KB). Contents: Artificial Evolution Based Autonomous Robot Navigation; Evolvable Hardware in Evolutionary Robotics; FPGA-Based Autonomous Robot Navigation via Intrinsic Evolution; Intelligent Sensor Fusion and Learning for Autonomous Robot Navigation; Task-Oriented Developmental Learning for Humanoid Robots; Bipedal Walking Through Reinforcement Learning; Swing Time Generation for Bipedal Walking Control Using GA Tuned Fuzzy Logic Controller; Bipedal Walking: Stance Ankle Behavior Optimization Using Genetic Algorithm. Readership: Researchers in evolutionary robotics, and graduate and advanced undergraduate students in computational intelligence.

An overview of the basic concepts and methodologies of evolutionary robotics, which views robots as autonomous artificial organisms that develop their own skills in close interaction with the environment and without human intervention.

This book is for researchers, engineers, and students who are willing to understand how humanoid robots move and be controlled. The book starts with an overview of the humanoid robotics research history and state of the art. Then it explains the required mathematics and physics such as kinematics of multi-body system, Zero-Moment Point (ZMP) and its relationship with body motion. Biped walking control is discussed in depth, since it is one of the main interests of humanoid robotics. Various topics of the whole body motion generation are also discussed. Finally multi-body dynamics is presented to simulate the complete dynamic behavior of a humanoid robot. Throughout the book, Matlab codes are shown to test the algorithms and to help the reader ́s understanding.

In this book the author discusses synergies between computers and thought, related to the field of Artificial Intelligence; between people and thought, leading to questions of consciousness and our existence as humans; and between computers and people, leading to the recent remarkable advances in the field of humanoid robots. He then looks toward the implications of intelligent 'conscious' humanoid robots with superior intellects, able to operate in our human environments. After presenting the basic engineering components and supporting logic of computer systems, and giving an overview of the contributions of pioneering scientists in the domains of computing, logic, and robotics, in the core of the book the author examines the meaning of thought and intelligence in the context of specific tasks and successful AI approaches. In the final part of the book he introduces related societal and ethical implications. The book will be a useful accompanying text in courses on artificial intelligence, robotics, intelligent systems, games, and evolutionary computing. It will also be valuable for general readers and historians of technology.

Humanoid Robotics provides a comprehensive compilation of developments in the conceptualization, design and development of humanoid robots and related technologies. Human beings have built the environment they occupy (living spaces, instruments and vehicles) to suit two-legged systems. Building systems, especially in robotics, that are compatible with the well-established, human-based surroundings and which could naturally interact with humans is an ultimate goal for all researches and engineers. Humanoid Robots are systems (i.e. robots) which mimic human behavior. Humanoids provide a platform to study the construction of systems that behave and interact like humans. A broad range of applications ranging from daily housework to complex medical surgery, deep ocean exploration, and other potentially dangerous tasks are possible using humanoids. In addition, the study of humanoid robotics provides a platform to understand the mechanisms and offers a physical visual of how humans interact, think, and react with the surroundings and how such behaviors could be reassembled and reconstructed. Currently, the most challenging issue with bipedal humanoids is to make them balance on two legs, The purportedly simple act of finding the best balance that enables easy walking, jumping and running requires some of the most sophisticated development of robotic systems- those that will ultimately mimic fully the diversity and dexterity of human beings. Other typical human-like interactions such as complex thought and conversations on the other hand, also pose barriers for the development of humanoids because we are yet to understand fully the way in which we humans interact with our environment and consequently to replicate this in humanoids.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Evolutionary Robotics, ER 2001, held in Tokyo, Japan, in October 2001. The seven revised full papers by the invited speakers Rodney A. Brooks, Dario Floreano, Robert J. Full, Inman Harvey, Owen Holland, Francesco Mondada, and Jordan B. Pollack were carefully selected and revised for presentation in the book. Among the topics addressed are imitation of life and machine consciousness, autonomous vision-based robots, evolved robots, living machines, artificial evolution, bioinspired artificial life locomotion, and mobile robotic systems engineering.

This Festschrift volume, published in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Artificial Intelligence, includes 34 refereed papers written by leading researchers in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The papers were carefully selected from the invited lectures given at the 50th Anniversary Summit of AI, held at the Centro Stefano Franscini, Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland, July 9-14, 2006. The summit provided a venue for discussions on a broad range of topics.