What if robots could reproduce and evolve, giving them better bodies and smarter minds? Research on robot evolution now poses fundamental questions about intelligence.
Intelligence can develop through evolution, that is certain. Similarly, artificial intelligence can develop through artificial evolution. What would happen if robots were able to reproduce? Is it possible that we could have artificial life forms? Could we possibly use these to make other planets habitable? Would that unleash an Industrial Evolution, create a new branch of science or lead to a Robot Zoo for edutainment?
Evolution is a wonderful phenomenon. The eternal cycle of reproduction and natural selection has led to an enormous diversity of life forms and ingenious solutions. Take, for example, the pouch of a kangaroo or the ‘radar’ of a bat. Evolution is a powerful and generic mechanism and we can use it as a general tool for solutions within computer science. From ‘wetware’ to software, so to speak. This is the basis of Evolutionary Computing.
Robotic evolution is the next step: from software to hardware. It is also a step towards a more general form of AI - embodied intelligence - which involves machines that can think and act. The key question then is: if you have a challenging environment and a number of tasks, what physical form and which type of brain are best suited to perform those tasks? Guszti Eiben, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, is conducting groundbreaking research into robot evolution. He stood at the cradle of the first robot baby. His work has been published in top journals and he has made many newspaper and television appearances to showcase his work.