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Morpho-functional Machines: The New Species pp 59–79Cite as

Co-evolving Control and Morphology with LEGO Robots

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Abstract

The Building Brains and Bodies approach to the design of task-fulfilling robots is introduced. In this approach, focus is on designing both controller and morphology of robots, and it thereby contrasts most research in adaptive robotics that puts emphasis on design of control exclusively. It is possible to co-evolve robot control and morphology in simulation, and this work suggests that there exists important correlations between different body parameters (e.g. wheel base diameter, body size, and sensory range) in order to achieve optimal performance on specific tasks. The evolved morphology can be constructed with LEGO, and the evolved controller can be downloaded to the LEGO MINDSTORMS RCX. Hence, the experiments suggest a path towards automatic building plans for LEGO MINDSTORMS robots. Further, it is possible to manipulate the morphology in a user-guided approach of building modular LEGO robots, which allow children to construct their own robots within 10 minutes. Finally, the experiments give suggestion to new research on building blocks with processing power.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute for Production Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230, Odense M., Denmark

    Henrik Hautop Lund

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  1. Henrik Hautop Lund
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8601, Japan

    Fumio Hara (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Department of Information Technology, University of Zurich, Andreasstrasse 15, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland

    Rolf Pfeifer (Professor) (Professor)

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© 2003 Springer Japan

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Lund, H.H. (2003). Co-evolving Control and Morphology with LEGO Robots. In: Hara, F., Pfeifer, R. (eds) Morpho-functional Machines: The New Species. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-67869-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-67869-4_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo

  • Print ISBN: 978-4-431-68006-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-4-431-67869-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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