Predicting soft robot's locomotion fitness

Abstract

Organisms with different body morphology and movement dynamics have distinct abilities to move through the environment. Despite such truism, there is a lack of general principles that predict which shapes and dynamics make the organisms more fit to move. Studying a minimal yet embodied soft robot model under the influence of gravity, we find three features that predict robot locomotion fitness: (1) A larger body is better. (2) Two-point contact with the ground is better than one-point contact. (3) Out-of-phase oscillating body parts increase locomotion fitness. These design principles can guide the selection rules for evolutionary algorithms to obtain robots with higher locomotion fitness.