Evoluting Life

This application is an experiment to train robots to travel without colliding. To achieve this, it uses a Genetic Algorithm and a basic neural network. The fitness of a robot is determined by large distance and few collisions. The application van run as a simulation as well as on a raspberry-pi.

Build

To build this application using a Terminal, navigate to the root of this project. Make sure you have installed Maven and type:

mvn clean package

Running the simulation

To run this application as a simulation using a Terminal, navigate to the target sub folder and type:

java -jar evoluting-life-java-<version>-jar-with-dependencies.jar

Where the -placeholder needs to be replaced by the current version.

Running on a Raspberry-Pi

Prerequisites

pi4j

To control the pins on your Raspberry-Pi, this application uses the pi4j library. The library needs to be installed on your Raspberry-Pi. You can find instructions here: Install pi4j

ServoBlaster

To control the servo that holds and turns the sensor, the application uses ServoBlaster. This repository contains a servoBlaster.sh which should be started on the Raspberry-Pi before starting the application.

runRobot

To start the application in a convenient way, it is recommended to copy the runRobot.sh file in this repository to your Raspberry-Pi.

The application

Also copy the application 'evoluting-life-java--jar-with-dependencies.jar' that was previously build to your Raspberry-Pi.

Pin setup

The pin numbering of wiringpi wil be used in this description and in code. Visit Raspberry Pi Pinout for reference. The following pins are used for running the application on the Raspberry-Pi:

• GPIO_07 : Servo (output)
• GPIO_10 : Sensor echo (input)
• GPIO_14 : Sensor trigger (output)
• GPIO_23 : Left motor forward (output, hard PWM)
• GPIO_25 : Left motor reverse (output, soft PWM)
• GPIO_26 : Right motor forward (output, hard PWM)
• GPIO_28 : Right motor reverse (output, soft PWM)
• GPIO_29 : Led (output)

Structure of the code

The green colored boxes represent classes that are part of the core and are used in both simulation and on the Raspberry-Pi. The orange colored boxed represent classes that are used for the simulation only. The grey colored boxes represent classes that are used on the Raspberry-Pi only. The red lines represent a dependency that is used to report velocity, position, collision etc. to the SimRobot class.