Evolutionary control of bipedal locomotion in a high degree-of-freedom humanoid robot: first steps

This article describes a methodology, together with an associated series of experiments employing this methodology, for the evolution of walking behavior in a simulated humanoid robot with up to 20 degrees of freedom. The robots evolved in this study learn to walk smoothly in an upright or near-upright position and demonstrate a variety of different locomotive behaviors, including “skating,” “limping,” and walking in a manner curiously reminiscent of a mildly or heavily intoxicated person. A previous study demonstrated the possible potential utility of this approach while evolving controllers based on simulated humanoid robots with a restricted range of movements. Although walking behaviors were developed, these were slow and relied on the robot walking in an excessively stooped position, similar to the gait of an infirm elderly person. This article extends the previous work to a robot with many degrees of freedom, up to 20 in total (arms, elbows, legs, hips, knees, etc.), and demonstrates the automatic evolution of fully upright bipedal locomotion in a humanoid robot using an accurate physics simulator. This work was presented in part at the 11th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 23–25, 2006