Cooperation in Evolved Modular Soft Robots

Self-assembly is the ability of natural beings to aggregate in a suitable structure in order to tackle complex tasks that could not be solved by single individuals. Robotics tries to replicate this ability to solve complex problems using artificial embodied physical agents. Nevertheless, the potential of self-assembly in robotics has still to be fully exploited. Here we propose self-assembly with voxel-based soft robots, a type of modular soft robots. The goal is to evolve the controller of the robots, inducing the formation of a single structure to move beyond a hole in the terrain that could not be crossed by individual robots. We perform experiments in simulation in increasingly complex arenas. The results show that evolved robots are capable of forming a connected chain and overall succeed in their mission. We also discuss limitations and improvements of the proposed approach.