Analysis and implementation of an Artificial Homeostatic Hormone System: A first case study in robotic hardware

One of the prominent challenges in mobile robotics is to develop control methodologies that allow the adaptation to dynamic and unforeseen environments. The classic approach of hand-coded controllers is very efficient for well-defined tasks and specific environments but poor in adapting to changing environmental conditions. One alternative approach is the application of evolutionary algorithms which need, in turn, easily evolvable representations of controllers. In this paper, we investigate one promising approach of an artificial hormone system as a control paradigm which is believed to be easily optimized by evolutionary processes. In a first step of this research, we focus on the simple task of collision avoidance. We present a brief mathematical analysis of this controller approach and an implementation of the controller on a mobile robot to check the feasibility in principle of our approach. The task is successfully accomplished and we conclude with a discussion of the hormone dynamics in the robot.