The 'what', 'how' and the 'why' of evolutionary robotics

Abstract

The field of embodied artificial intelligence is maturing, and as such has progressed from what questions ("what is embodiment?") to how questions: how should the body plan of an autonomous robot be designed to maximize the chance that it will exhibit a desired set of behaviors. In order to stand on its own however, rather than a reaction to classical AI, the field of embodied AI must address why questions as well: why should body and brain both be considered when creating intelligent machines? This report provides three new lines of evidence for why the body plays an important role in cognition: (1) an autonomous robot must be able to adapt behavior in the face of drastic, unanticipated change to its body; (2) under-explored body plans raise new research questions related to cognition; and (3) optimizing body plans accelerates the automated design of intelligent machines, compared to leaving them fixed. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.