Evo-Devo in the Sky

Abstract

Designers interested in applying evo-devo-design methods for performance based multi-objective design exploration have typically faced two main hurdles: it’s too hard and too slow. An evo-devo-design method is proposed that effectively overcomes the hurdles of skill and speed by leveraging two key technologies: computational workflows and cloud computing. In order to tackle the skills hurdle, Workflow Systems are used that allow users to define computational workflows using visual programming techniques. In order to tackle the speed hurdle, cloud computing infrastructures are used in order to allow the evolutionary process to be parallelized. We refer to the proposed method as Evo-Devo In The Sky (EDITS). This paper gives an overview of both the EDITS method and the implementation of a software environment supporting the EDITS method. Finally, a case-study is presented of the application of the EDITS method.