Invited talk for EWLR-8

Henrik Lund
Evolutionary Robotics with LEGO Mindstorms

In this talk, I will review of some of our new advances in evolutionary robotics. I will focus on how overcome some of the well-known problems of evolutionary robotics. Firstly, the problems with description of fitness functions might be alieviated by the use of breeding robotics which allows even young children to develop their own robots with an evolutionary approach. Secondly, the problems with generalisation over different hardware platforms can be avoided with a co-evolution approach that evolves both brains and bodies. Finally, I will suggest a combination between behaviour-based robotics and evolutionary robotics for the development of our adaptive LEGO Pet Robot. I will show case studies of all these approaches with the LEGO Mindstorms robotic system.


Henrik Hautop Lund is computer scientist and head of the LEGO Lab. The LEGO Lab is a young lab. It is run independently at the University of Aarhus, but is financed by the Danish Government and LEGO. The lab is a common space for interaction, an open experimentarium in the intersection between on the one hand information and communication technology and on the other children's play in a world of ubiquitous computing. The initial focus of the LEGO Lab is on adaptive robotics. Currently, the LEGO Lab has approximately 10 different projects running, which all concern evolutionary robotics and adaptive robotics. One of the first demonstrations includes the LEGO Mindstorms robot soccer demonstration, broadcasted to an estimated 200-250 million TV viewers worldwide (via CNN, Sky Television, Azteca Television, DR-1, Columbian National Television, Reuters, AP, etc.). Also the lab is the World champion in Khepera robot soccer. intersection between on the one hand information and communication technology and on the other children's play in a world of ubiquitous computing. The initial focus of the LEGO Lab is on adaptive robotics. Currently, the LEGO Lab has approximately 10 different projects running, which all concern evolutionary robotics and adaptive robotics. One of the first demonstrations includes the LEGO Mindstorms robot soccer demonstration, broadcasted to an estimated 200-250 million TV viewers worldwide (via CNN, Sky Television, Azteca Television, DR-1, Columbian National Television, Reuters, AP, etc.). Also the lab is the World champion in Khepera robot soccer.