Neural networks are often chosen as controllers in evolutionary robotics. In all but a few cases, neural networks are evolved from scratch. In this study, we investigate the effect of pretraining neural networks using a biologically inspired walking gait. We first generate joint angles for a walking gait using an inverse kinematics model. We then train a conventional feed-forward neural network to reproduce these joint angles. The pretrained model is used to seed an initial population of neural networks, which are coevolved along with the morphology of a quadrupedal robot using Lexicase selection. Our initial results show that while pretraining does not necessarily lead to higher fitness at the end of evolution, it does lead to more consistent performance and more lifelike final behaviors. This exploration has left us with many questions about the importance and process of pretraining in evolutionary robotics, and we believe our results suggest the technique is worth further investigation.

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General Conference
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© 2023 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license
2023
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Issue Section:
General Conference