Robotics Commons^™

Scalable Co-Evolution Of Soft Robot Properties And Gaits, Davis K. Knox

Honors Theses

The field of soft robotics is very promising; applications in-clude urban search and rescue and covert surveillance, but these projects are not yet realized, partly because of the difficulties in soft robot shape and locomotion design. Be-cause of this, traditional design methods do not prove to be effective. This project attempts to come up with solu-tions to this soft robot design problem; utilizing a genetic algorithm, a computer simulation of Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest,” this project attempts to make soft bodies move. This genetic algorithm evaluates each solution in simulation, and assigns each one a fitness based on distance …