The application of evolvable hardware to fault tolerant robot control

Abstract

This paper introduces a short study into the efficacy of using intrinsic evolvable hardware to assist in the control of a four-wheeled robot when faults are induced during operation. Where this work differs from much that has gone before is in the choice of how to use evolution to assist in the operation of the system. Here evolution is only ldquoturned-onrdquo when a fault is detected and at this point a previously-trusted configuration is used as the starting point for the evolutionary process, as opposed to the normal random starting point. This procedure is executed on an FPGA and shows that an intrinsic evolutionary system can successfully bring the faulty system back to a working status.