Call for Papers WCCI / CEC 2016 Special Session "Evolutionary Robotics"

General Chairs

Patricia A. Vargas (Heriot-Watt University - United Kingdom)
Joshua Auerbach (EPFL - Lausanne, Switzerland)
Micael Couceiro (Ingenarius, Ltd - Portugal)
Dario Floreano (EPFL - Lausanne, Switzerland)
Phil Husbands (University of Sussex - United Kingdom)

Website: http://lis2.epfl.ch/events/specialsessions/CEC16/

Evolutionary Robotics (ER) aims to apply evolutionary computation techniques, inspired by Darwin’s principle of selective reproduction of the fittest, to automatically design the control and/or hardware of both real and simulated autonomous robots.

Having an intrinsic interdisciplinary character, ER is being employed towards the development of many fields of research, among which we can highlight neuroscience, cognitive science, evolutionary biology and robotics.

Hence the objective of this special session is to assemble a set of high-quality original contributions that reflect and advance the state-of-the-art in the area of Evolutionary Robotics, with an emphasis on the cross-fertilisation between ER and the aforementioned research areas, ranging from theoretical analysis to real-life applications.

Papers Publication

Papers accepted to this special session track will be published in the IEEE CEC proceedings.

Post Conference Publication

Authors of best papers will be asked to contribute to a journal special issue on the topic of "Evolutionary Robotics".

Paper Submission

Submissions should follow the guidance given on the IEEE CEC 2016 conference website: http://www.wcci2016.org/submission.php

When submitting, please select in the submission system the respective special session title under the list of Main research topic: Evolutionary Robotics.

All submissions will be peer-reviewed with the same criteria used for other contributed papers. All accepted papers will be included and published in the conference proceedings.

Topics of interest include (but are not restricted to):

• Evolution of robots which display minimal cognitive behaviour, learning, memory, spatial cognition, adaptation or homeostasis.
• Evolution of neural controllers for robots, aimed at giving an insight to neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists or advancing control structures.
• Evolution of communication, cooperation and competition, using robots as a research platform.
• Co-evolution and the evolution of collective behaviour.
• Evolution of morphology in close interaction with the environment, giving rise to self-reconfigurable, self-designing, self-healing, self-reproducing, humanoid and walking robots.
• Evolution of robot systems aimed at real-world applications as in aerial robotics, space exploration, industry, search and rescue, robot companions, entertainment and games.
• Evolution of controllers on board real robots or the real-time evolution of robot hardware.
• Novel or improved algorithms for the evolution of robot systems.
• The use of evolution for the artistic exploration of robot design.

Important Dates

Paper Submission: January 15, 2016
Notification of Acceptance: March 15, 2016
Camera-Ready Submission: April 15, 2016