The father of the natural evolution theory, Charles Darwin, explained the complexities and the factors involved in the process of evolution and the adaptation of different species via natural selection. However, the same principles are now being applied to an entirely new non-biological entity, called Robotics. As per the white paper released by Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne, robots involved in their research project have demonstrated intense sentience, as the machines assisted each other in navigating through a maze, all the while avoiding collisions and achieved the common goal successful navigation.

The robots involved in the research were programmed to understand and implement the Darwinian selection process and to further learn, evolve and to mutate to study the machines’ behavior and the level of sentience. The project churned out some astounding results that have even shocked the researchers, as the robots not only displayed unity but in certain cases, some of the robots showed increased traits of predatory-prey relationship.

As the robots were comprised of neural networks, the process of mutation and selective evolution wasn’t that far away and with hundreds of generations of random mutations and selective reproduction, it was determined that the neural pathways of these machines had mapped the genotype and thus enabled the robots to carry out their programmed all by themselves, all the while portraying acute survival traits, predator evasion, coordination and navigation.

Via PLoS Biology & Engadget