title: Open Issues in Evolutionary Robotics.
abstract: One of the long-term goals in evolutionary robotics is to be able to automatically synthesize controllers for real autonomous robots based only on a task specification. While a number of studies have shown the applicability of evolutionary robotics techniques for the synthesis of behavioral control, researchers have consistently been faced with a number of issues preventing the widespread adoption of evolutionary robotics for engineering purposes. In this article, we review and discuss the open issues in evolutionary robotics. First, we analyze the benefits and challenges of simulation-based evolution and subsequent deployment of controllers versus evolution on real robotic hardware. Second, we discuss specific evolutionary computation issues that have plagued evolutionary robotics: (1) the bootstrap problem, (2) deception, and (3) the role of genomic encoding and genotype-phenotype mapping in the evolution of controllers for complex tasks. Finally, we address the absence of standard research practices in the field. We also discuss promising avenues of research. Our underlying motivation is the reduction of the current gap between evolutionary robotics and mainstream robotics, and the establishment of evolutionary robotics as a canonical approach for the engineering of autonomous robots.
authors.affiliation: Bio-inspired Computation and Intelligent Machines Lab, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal BioISI, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal fsilva@di.fc.ul.pt.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Bio-inspired Computation and Intelligent Machines Lab, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal miguel_duarte@iscte.pt.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duarte
authors.affiliation: BioISI, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal luis.correia@ciencias.ulisboa.pt.
authors.forename: Luís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Correia
authors.affiliation: Bio-inspired Computation and Intelligent Machines Lab, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal sancho.oliveira@iscte.pt.
authors.forename: Sancho Moura
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Bio-inspired Computation and Intelligent Machines Lab, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal anders.christensen@iscte.pt.
authors.forename: Anders Lyhne
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Christensen
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D003198:Computer Simulation; D012371:Robotics
keywords: Evolutionary robotics; autonomous robots; bootstrap problem; controller synthesis; deception; genomic encoding; online evolution; reality gap; research practices