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GP-Sumo: Using genetic programming to evolve sumobots

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Abstract

We describe the evolution—via genetic programming—of control systems for real-world, sumo-fighting robots—sumobots, in adherence with the Robothon rules: Two robots face each other within a circular arena, the objective of each being to push the other outside the arena boundaries. Our robots are minimally equipped with sensors and actuators, the intent being to seek out good fighters with this restricted platform, in a limited amount of time. We describe four sets of experiments—of gradually increasing difficulty—which also test a number of evolutionary methods: single-population vs. coevolution, static fitness vs. dynamic fitness, and real vs. dummy opponents.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dario Floreano, Ami Hauptman, Yonatan Shichel, and the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of this manuscript and helpful comments. We thank Yaroslav Tenzer for his help in building the robots and writing their drivers.

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Correspondence to Moshe Sipper.

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Sharabi, S., Sipper, M. GP-Sumo: Using genetic programming to evolve sumobots. Genet Program Evolvable Mach 7, 211–230 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10710-006-9006-6

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