2017 Workshop on 'Developmental Plasticity and Evolutionary Robotics'

This workshop will address the impact that developmental plasticity can have on evolutionary robotics from a multidisciplinary perspective. Given its fundamental role in driving diversification and speciation, this emerging and growing area of research can possibly contribute to a new paradigm in developmental and evolutionary robotics. We will discuss how developmental (phenotypic) plasticity can play a major role in emerging paradigms in evolutionary robotics. Recent progress in evolutionary biology suggests that the interplay between robotics research and the current understanding of the plasticity mechanisms underlying the development of living organisms is a very promising track to be followed. Interaction between the two fields is useful for both evolutionary robotics, which can take inspiration from biological solutions to engineering problems, and evolutionary biology, that can benefit from artificial emulation of biological mechanisms which can prove the validity of research hypothesis.