News: Session program online, don't miss the Evolutionary Robotics pub night!

Special Session on Evolutionary Robotics, IEEE CEC 2009

Evolutionary Robotics (ER) aims to apply evolutionary computation techniques, inspired by Darwin’s principle of selective reproduction of the fittest, to automatically design the control and/or hardware of both real and simulated autonomous robots.

Having an intrinsic interdisciplinary character, ER is being employed towards the development of many fields of research, among which we can highlight neuroscience, cognitive science, evolutionary biology and robotics. Hence the objective of this special session is to assemble a set of high-quality original contributions that reflect and advance the state-of-the-art in the area of Evolutionary Robotics, with an emphasis on the cross-fertilization between ER and the aforementioned research areas, ranging from theoretical analysis to real-life applications.

Topics of interest include (but are not restricted to):
  • Evolution of robots which display minimal cognitive behaviour, learning, memory, spatial cognition, adaptation or homeostasis.
  • Evolution of neural controllers for robots, aimed at giving an insight to neuroscientists or advancing control structures.
  • Evolution of communication, cooperation and competition, using robots as a research platform.
  • Co-evolution and the evolution of collective behaviour.
  • Evolution of morphology in close interaction with the environment, giving rise to self-reconfigurable, self-designing, self-healing and self-reproducing robots or humanoid and walking robots.
  • Evolution of robot systems aimed at real-world applications as in aerial robotics, space exploration, industry, search and rescue, robot companions, entertainment and games.
  • Evolution of controllers on board real robots or the real-time evolution of robot hardware.
  • Novel or improved algorithms for the evolution or robot systems.
  • The use of evolution for the artistic exploration of robot design.

Session Programme

Evolutionary Robotics Pub Night
Wednesday the 20th of May from 20:30 to +22:30
Location: Krambua bar, find directions from the Nova Conference Center here.


A) Nova Conference Center
B) Krambua bar (address: Krambugata 12)

The Evolutionary Robotics Pub Night aims at encouraging informal discussions on the past, present and future of ER in a relaxing environment. The pub night will take place in the private cellar of the Krambua bar and first rounds of drinks will be offered.

Please let us know if you plan on coming with an email to sabine.hauert@epfl.ch.

Evolutionary Robotics I
Tuesday the 19th of May from 10:45 to 12:05
Room: 5
Evolutionary Robotics II
Wednesday the 20th of May from 09:00 to 10:20
Room: 5
Evolutionary Robotics III
Thursday the 21st of May from 16:00 to 17:20
Room: 5
Click here for the complete IEEE CEC 2009 programme.

Poster Sessions

Don't miss the poster sessions at CEC which will feature the following work on Evolutionary Robotics (non exhaustive list):

Tuesday the 19th of May from 14:55 to 16:10
Room: Europa
Wednesday the 20th of May from 18:00 - 20:00
Room: Europa

Post Conference Book Publication

Authors of the best selected paper from among those accepted for the “Evolutionary Robotics” session will be invited to submit an extended version for review for possible publication as a chapter in the forthcoming book “The Horizons of Evolutionary Robotics” edited by Patricia A. Vargas, Ezequiel Di Paolo, Inman Harvey and Phil Husbands (publisher MIT Press).

Programme Commitee

Fernando Almeida e Costa Ruth Aylett Lionel Barnett
Randall Beer Luc Berthouze Josh Bongard
Joanna Bryson Larry Bull Angelo Cangelosi
Luis Correia Peter Duerr Steve Grand
John Hallam Inman Harvey Fumiya Iida
Eduardo Izquierdo Robert Kozma Davide Marocco
Alcherio Martinoli Claudio Mattiussi Bruce MacLennan
Orazio Miglino Marco Mirolli Sara Mitri
Stefano Nolfi Pierre-Yves Oudeyer Frank Pasemann
Alfredo Pereira Andres Perez-Uribe Andrew Philippides
Daniel Polani Andrea Soltoggio Jun Tani
Vito Trianni Elio Tuci Paul Vogt
Fernando J. Von Zuben Steffen Wischmann Tom Ziemke

Organisers


Patricia A. Vargas
Heriot-Watt University

Sabine Hauert
EPFL

Dario Floreano
EPFL

Phil Husbands
University of Sussex
Last modified: 20.04.09 / sh