Centre for Computational Neuroscience & Robotics,
and
Centre for the Study of Evolution; School of Cognitive
& Computing Sciences,
University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
WWW home page:
http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/users/adrianth/
Abstract:
Evolutionary algorithms can design electronic circuits that conventional
design methods cannot, because they can craft an emergent behaviour without
the need for a detailed model of how the behaviours of the components affect
the overall behaviour. However, the absence of such a model makes the achievement
of robustness to variations in temperature, fabrication, etc., challenging.
An experiment is presented showing that a robust design can be evolved
without having to resort to conventional restrictive design constraints,
by testing in different conditions during evolution. Surprisingly, the
result tentatively suggests that even within the domain of robust digital
design, evolution can explore beyond the scope of conventional methods.
