Evolutionary Machine Learning in Robotics

In this chapter, we survey the most significant applications of EML to robotics. We first highlight the salient characteristics of the field in terms of what can be optimized and with what aims and constraints. Then we survey the large literature concerning the optimization, by the means of evolutionary computation, of artificial neural networks, traditionally considered a form of machine learning, used for controlling the robots: for easing the comprehension, we categorize the various approaches along different axes, as, e.g., the robotic task, the representation of the solutions, the evolutionary algorithm being employed. We then survey the many usages of evolutionary computation for optimizing the morphology of the robots, including those that tackle the challenging task of optimizing the morphology and the controller at the same time. Finally, we discuss the reality gap problem that consists in a potential mismatch between the quality of solutions found in simulations and their quality observed in reality.