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We are interested in supporting software evolution caused by changing requirements and/or environmental settings. For example, users of a system may require new functionality (changing requirements), or performance enhancements to cope with…
Evolution strategies (ESs) are zeroth-order stochastic black-box optimization heuristics invariant to monotonic transformations of the objective function. They evolve a multivariate normal distribution, from which candidate solutions are…
It is well known that evolutionary algorithms (EAs) achieve peak performance only when their parameters are suitably tuned to the given problem. Even more, it is known that the best parameter values can change during the optimization…
This work aims to develop a resource-efficient solution for obstacle-avoiding tracking control of a planar snake robot in a densely cluttered environment with obstacles. Particularly, Neuro-Evolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) has been…
This paper presents an algorithm, Voted Kernel Regularization , that provides the flexibility of using potentially very complex kernel functions such as predictors based on much higher-degree polynomial kernels, while benefitting from…
We argue that results produced by a heuristic optimisation algorithm cannot be considered reproducible unless the algorithm fully specifies what should be done with solutions generated outside the domain, even in the case of simple box…
Recent advances in vision, language, and multimodal learning have substantially accelerated progress in robotic foundation models, with robot manipulation remaining a central and challenging problem. This survey examines robot manipulation…
Autonomous robot swarms must be able to make fast and accurate collective decisions, but speed and accuracy are known to be conflicting goals. While collective decision-making is widely studied in swarm robotics research, only few works on…
Learning real-world robotic manipulation is challenging, particularly when limited demonstrations are available. Existing methods for few-shot manipulation often rely on simulation-augmented data or pre-built modules like grasping and pose…
Experimental design is a fundamental problem in many science and engineering fields. In this problem, sample efficiency is crucial due to the time, money, and safety costs of real-world design evaluations. Existing approaches either rely on…
Recent advances in computational perception have significantly improved the ability of autonomous robots to perform state estimation with low entropy. Such advances motivate a reconsideration of robot decision-making under uncertainty.…
In this paper, we explore an important yet underexplored task in robot manipulation: cycle-based manipulation, where robots need to perform cyclic or repetitive actions with an expected terminal time. These tasks are crucial in daily life,…
Exposing an Evolutionary Algorithm that is used to evolve robot controllers to variable conditions is necessary to obtain solutions which are robust and can cross the reality gap. However, we do not yet have methods for analyzing and…
A key challenge in the application of evolutionary algorithms in practice is the selection of an algorithm instance that best suits the problem at hand. What complicates this decision further is that different algorithms may be best suited…
We propose a novel framework for learning high-level cognitive capabilities in robot manipulation tasks, such as making a smiley face using building blocks. These tasks often involve complex multi-step reasoning, presenting significant…
Abbreviated Abstract: The objective of Evolutionary Computation is to solve practical problems (e.g. optimization, data mining) by simulating the mechanisms of natural evolution. This thesis addresses several topics related to adaptation…
Sample efficiency is crucial in optimization, particularly in black-box scenarios characterized by expensive evaluations and zeroth-order feedback. When computing resources are plentiful, Bayesian optimization is often favored over…
Human-robot cooperation is essential in environments such as warehouses and retail stores, where workers frequently handle deformable objects like paper, bags, and fabrics. Coordinating robotic actions with human assistance remains…
Although robotic manipulators are used in an ever-growing range of applications, robot manufacturers typically follow a ``one-fits-all'' philosophy, employing identical manipulators in various settings. This often leads to suboptimal…
Collective decision-making enables multi-robot systems to act autonomously in real-world environments. Existing collective decision-making mechanisms suffer from the so-called speed versus accuracy trade-off or rely on high complexity,…