Modular and Reconfigurable Robotics

In our 1998 article [48] we proposed that this type of technique should be applied in ER to evolve the body and brain of a robot simultaneously. We thought that the modular approach should fit well with the research in modular robots, such as proposed by Yim [139] or Pamecha [104].

However, the first realization of fully coevolved body and behavior came two years later with Lipson and Pollack's crawlers [94]. Instead of a modular parts approach, they use a continuously deformable architecture, employing a rapid-prototyping machine to build the evolved components on-the-fly (fig. 2.34).

  

Figure 2.34: Walking robot evolved by Lipson and Pollack builds further on our paradigm of evolution of structure under buildability constraints, adding movement and control.