II-EN: Evolution Park - An Evolutionary Robotics Habitat for the Study of Crawling, Swimming and Flying Creatures

II-EN：进化公园 - 用于研究爬行、游泳和飞行生物的进化机器人栖息地

• 批准号: 1059373
• 负责人: Philip McKinley
• 金额: $ 30.5万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-04-01 至 2014-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1059373&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: II; EN; Evolution; Park; Evolutionary

The Evolution Park provides a testbed for applying evolutionary computation to the development and control of autonomous robotic systems. Mixed populations are created, including some robots and some natural systems to facilitate a form of biomutualism where biology, engineering and computer science inform one another in synergistic and mutually beneficial ways. The 3D printer enables the realization of physical bodies (morphologies) that evolve concurrently with their control systems. The fabricated bodies are coupled with electroactive polymer materials to produce artificial organisms capable of locomotion without motors. Specially instrumented aquatic environments allow robotic fish to be used as stimuli to elicit behavioral responses in living fish under conditions manipulated by the experimenter. A collection of high-performance graphics workstations with large monitors facilitate fine-grained, interactive analysis of evolved behaviors in simulated robots, as well as analysis of video data captured by underwater cameras.This infrastructure enables compelling new research directions in evolutionary robotics and squarely builds on previous work by the PIs on group communication and cooperative behavior, parallel processing, wireless networking, autonomic computing, distributed algorithms, high-assurance software, complex behavior in natural organisms, sensors and actuators, robotic fish, bio-inspired robots and swarms, as well as speciation and the evolution of communication. These advances benefit many applications in science and engineering, public safety, and national defense. The Evolution Park supports several innovative educational and outreach activities. Such endeavors provide a framework for hands-on experiments that are integrated into university courses, teacher training workshops, summer camps and after-school programs for K-12 students.

进化公园为将进化计算应用于自主机器人系统的开发和控制提供了一个试验平台。 混合种群被创造出来，包括一些机器人和一些自然系统，以促进一种生物共生的形式，生物学，工程学和计算机科学以协同和互利的方式相互交流。3D打印机能够实现与其控制系统同时进化的物理体（形态）。 制造的身体与电活性聚合物材料相结合，以产生能够在没有马达的情况下运动的人造生物体。 特别仪器化的水生环境允许机器鱼被用作刺激物，以在实验者操纵的条件下引起活鱼的行为反应。 一系列高性能的图形工作站和大屏幕显示器，可以对模拟机器人的进化行为进行精细的交互式分析，以及对水下摄像机捕获的视频数据进行分析。这一基础设施可以在进化机器人学中实现引人注目的新研究方向，并直接建立在PI以前在群体通信和协作行为、并行处理、无线网络、自主计算、分布式算法、高可靠性软件、自然生物体的复杂行为、传感器和执行器、机器鱼、仿生机器人和鱼群，以及物种形成和通信进化。 这些进步使科学和工程、公共安全和国防领域的许多应用受益。 进化公园支持一些创新的教育和推广活动。 这些努力为实践实验提供了一个框架，这些实验被纳入大学课程，教师培训研讨会，夏令营和K-12学生的课后计划。