{"id":"https://openalex.org/W4223926364","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3512290.3528762","title":"Evolving modular soft robots without explicit inter-module communication using local self-attention","display_name":"Evolving modular soft robots without explicit inter-module communication using local self-attention","publication_year":2022,"publication_date":"2022-07-08","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W4223926364","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3512290.3528762"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3512290.3528762","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3512290.3528762","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3512290.3528762","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4363608932","display_name":"Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":null,"host_organization_name":null,"host_organization_lineage":[],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"article","indexed_in":["arxiv","crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"bronze","oa_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3512290.3528762","any_repository_has_fulltext":true},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5088218175","display_name":"Federico Pigozzi","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3315-6768"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I142444530","display_name":"University of Trieste","ror":"https://ror.org/02n742c10","country_code":"IT","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I142444530"]}],"countries":["IT"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Federico Pigozzi","raw_affiliation_strings":["DIA - University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"DIA - University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I142444530"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5100669162","display_name":"Yujin Tang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8641-1219"},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yujin Tang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Google Brain, Tokyo, Japan"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Google Brain, Tokyo, Japan","institution_ids":[]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5074055647","display_name":"Eric Medvet","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5652-2113"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I142444530","display_name":"University of Trieste","ror":"https://ror.org/02n742c10","country_code":"IT","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I142444530"]}],"countries":["IT"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Eric Medvet","raw_affiliation_strings":["DIA - University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"DIA - University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I142444530"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5001419875","display_name":"David Ha","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8765-8574"},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"David Ha","raw_affiliation_strings":["Google Brain, Tokyo, Japan"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Google Brain, Tokyo, Japan","institution_ids":[]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":4,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":13.4317,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":26,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.99633841,"is_in_top_1_percent":true,"is_in_top_10_percent":true},"cited_by_percentile_year":{"min":95,"max":99},"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"148","last_page":"157"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12784","display_name":"Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence","score":0.9998999834060669,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/2210","display_name":"Mechanical Engineering"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/22","display_name":"Engineering"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12784","display_name":"Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence","score":0.9998999834060669,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/2210","display_name":"Mechanical Engineering"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/22","display_name":"Engineering"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11486","display_name":"Micro and Nano Robotics","score":0.9976999759674072,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/3104","display_name":"Condensed Matter Physics"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/31","display_name":"Physics and Astronomy"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10868","display_name":"Soft Robotics and Applications","score":0.9787999987602234,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/2204","display_name":"Biomedical Engineering"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/22","display_name":"Engineering"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/modularity","display_name":"Modularity (biology)","score":0.7685993909835815},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/robot","display_name":"Robot","score":0.7680109739303589},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/modular-design","display_name":"Modular design","score":0.7669217586517334},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/self-reconfiguring-modular-robot","display_name":"Self-reconfiguring modular robot","score":0.7664128541946411},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/computer-science","display_name":"Computer science","score":0.7307584285736084},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/controller","display_name":"Controller (irrigation)","score":0.6034499406814575},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/flexibility","display_name":"Flexibility (engineering)","score":0.5621248483657837},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/voxel","display_name":"Voxel","score":0.5459702014923096},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/focus","display_name":"Focus (optics)","score":0.539909839630127},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/artificial-intelligence","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","score":0.5286816954612732},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/task","display_name":"Task (project management)","score":0.5044125318527222},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/evolutionary-robotics","display_name":"Evolutionary robotics","score":0.49557816982269287},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/distributed-computing","display_name":"Distributed computing","score":0.4388246536254883},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/robot-control","display_name":"Robot control","score":0.238529235124588},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/mobile-robot","display_name":"Mobile robot","score":0.18741047382354736},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/engineering","display_name":"Engineering","score":0.1148439347743988}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2779478453","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6889748","display_name":"Modularity (biology)","level":2,"score":0.7685993909835815},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C90509273","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11012","display_name":"Robot","level":2,"score":0.7680109739303589},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C101468663","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1620158","display_name":"Modular design","level":2,"score":0.7669217586517334},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C49603950","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17165512","display_name":"Self-reconfiguring modular robot","level":5,"score":0.7664128541946411},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.7307584285736084},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C203479927","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5165939","display_name":"Controller (irrigation)","level":2,"score":0.6034499406814575},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780598303","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q65921492","display_name":"Flexibility (engineering)","level":2,"score":0.5621248483657837},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C54170458","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q663554","display_name":"Voxel","level":2,"score":0.5459702014923096},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C192209626","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q190909","display_name":"Focus (optics)","level":2,"score":0.539909839630127},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.5286816954612732},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780451532","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q759676","display_name":"Task (project management)","level":2,"score":0.5044125318527222},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C199505168","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3267529","display_name":"Evolutionary robotics","level":3,"score":0.49557816982269287},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C120314980","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q180634","display_name":"Distributed computing","level":1,"score":0.4388246536254883},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C65401140","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7353385","display_name":"Robot control","level":4,"score":0.238529235124588},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C19966478","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4810574","display_name":"Mobile robot","level":3,"score":0.18741047382354736},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C127413603","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11023","display_name":"Engineering","level":0,"score":0.1148439347743988},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C86803240","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q420","display_name":"Biology","level":0,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C6557445","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q173113","display_name":"Agronomy","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C105795698","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12483","display_name":"Statistics","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C120665830","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14620","display_name":"Optics","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C121332964","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q413","display_name":"Physics","level":0,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C33923547","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q395","display_name":"Mathematics","level":0,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C111919701","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9135","display_name":"Operating system","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C54355233","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7162","display_name":"Genetics","level":1,"score":0.0},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C201995342","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q682496","display_name":"Systems engineering","level":1,"score":0.0}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":3,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1145/3512290.3528762","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3512290.3528762","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3512290.3528762","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4363608932","display_name":"Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":null,"host_organization_name":null,"host_organization_lineage":[],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},{"id":"pmh:oai:arXiv.org:2204.06481","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.06481","pdf_url":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2204.06481","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"submittedVersion","is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"text"},{"id":"pmh:oai:arts.units.it:11368/3026128","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/11368/3026128","pdf_url":"https://arts.units.it/bitstream/11368/3026128/1/2022-GECCO-VSREvolvedAttention.pdf","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306402362","display_name":"ArTS Archivio della ricerca di Trieste (University of Trieste https://www.units.it/)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I142444530","host_organization_name":"University of Trieste","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I142444530"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by-nc","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by-nc","version":"submittedVersion","is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceObject"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3512290.3528762","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3512290.3528762","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3512290.3528762","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4363608932","display_name":"Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":null,"host_organization_name":null,"host_organization_lineage":[],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[],"funders":[],"has_content":{"pdf":true,"grobid_xml":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4223926364.pdf","grobid_xml":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4223926364.grobid-xml"},"referenced_works_count":79,"referenced_works":["https://openalex.org/W36434594","https://openalex.org/W1515749184","https://openalex.org/W1558521349","https://openalex.org/W1902237438","https://openalex.org/W1983449914","https://openalex.org/W2014548877","https://openalex.org/W2065036156","https://openalex.org/W2074499097","https://openalex.org/W2076103977","https://openalex.org/W2108527602","https://openalex.org/W2116341502","https://openalex.org/W2117085697","https://openalex.org/W2119291948","https://openalex.org/W2133564696","https://openalex.org/W2149380484","https://openalex.org/W2149841830","https://openalex.org/W2151471214","https://openalex.org/W2164330600","https://openalex.org/W2345927288","https://openalex.org/W2535697732","https://openalex.org/W2596367596","https://openalex.org/W2610992585","https://openalex.org/W2771807014","https://openalex.org/W2778749116","https://openalex.org/W2785948534","https://openalex.org/W2792931560","https://openalex.org/W2896457183","https://openalex.org/W2907502844","https://openalex.org/W2912050044","https://openalex.org/W2913988491","https://openalex.org/W2945505203","https://openalex.org/W2953273646","https://openalex.org/W2954989419","https://openalex.org/W2962962252","https://openalex.org/W2997294852","https://openalex.org/W2999228461","https://openalex.org/W3006201994","https://openalex.org/W3012502279","https://openalex.org/W3031696893","https://openalex.org/W3033210410","https://openalex.org/W3040545976","https://openalex.org/W3041686449","https://openalex.org/W3046772394","https://openalex.org/W3047894871","https://openalex.org/W3094502228","https://openalex.org/W3098239557","https://openalex.org/W3101438731","https://openalex.org/W3106528330","https://openalex.org/W3112631988","https://openalex.org/W3120268816","https://openalex.org/W3122328523","https://openalex.org/W3129853634","https://openalex.org/W3145481521","https://openalex.org/W3151337059","https://openalex.org/W3151434123","https://openalex.org/W3162022551","https://openalex.org/W3174332297","https://openalex.org/W3174869211","https://openalex.org/W3175812804","https://openalex.org/W3178268080","https://openalex.org/W3183827582","https://openalex.org/W3185666586","https://openalex.org/W3202717607","https://openalex.org/W3208624098","https://openalex.org/W3212249145","https://openalex.org/W4200071503","https://openalex.org/W4206706211","https://openalex.org/W4221148168","https://openalex.org/W4226229891","https://openalex.org/W4243385754","https://openalex.org/W4245483486","https://openalex.org/W4285385743","https://openalex.org/W4286892412","https://openalex.org/W4301659030","https://openalex.org/W4307106648","https://openalex.org/W4312715081","https://openalex.org/W4385245566","https://openalex.org/W6728634397","https://openalex.org/W6817713987"],"related_works":["https://openalex.org/W2297768894","https://openalex.org/W2378076731","https://openalex.org/W3109014690","https://openalex.org/W2720417647","https://openalex.org/W4225163935","https://openalex.org/W2122405502","https://openalex.org/W86933508","https://openalex.org/W2736214932","https://openalex.org/W161911597","https://openalex.org/W1608367539"],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Modularity":[0],"in":[1,15,147,161],"robotics":[2],"holds":[3],"great":[4],"potential.":[5],"In":[6],"principle,":[7],"modular":[8],"robots":[9,126,144],"can":[10,165],"be":[11,129],"disassembled":[12],"and":[13,18,47,90],"reassembled":[14],"different":[16,168],"robots,":[17],"possibly":[19],"perform":[20],"new":[21],"tasks.":[22],"Nevertheless,":[23],"actually":[24],"exploiting":[25],"modularity":[26],"is":[27],"yet":[28],"an":[29,187],"unsolved":[30],"problem:":[31],"controllers":[32,176],"usually":[33],"rely":[34],"on":[35,55,167],"inter-module":[36,120],"communication,":[37,79],"a":[38,108,182],"practical":[39],"requirement":[40],"that":[41,141,173,186],"makes":[42],"modules":[43,86],"not":[44],"perfectly":[45],"interchangeable":[46],"thus":[48,123],"limits":[49],"their":[50,136],"flexibility.":[51],"Here,":[52],"we":[53,106],"focus":[54,166],"Voxel-based":[56],"Soft":[57],"Robots":[58],"(VSRs),":[59],"aggregations":[60],"of":[61,96,119,135,150,156],"mechanically":[62],"identical":[63],"elastic":[64],"blocks.":[65],"We":[66,92,138,170],"use":[67,107],"the":[68,94,97,101,113,117,132,142,148,157,162,174,192],"same":[69,158,163],"neural":[70,98],"controller":[71,114,159],"inside":[72,112],"each":[73],"voxel,":[74],"but":[75],"without":[76],"any":[77],"inter-voxel":[78],"hence":[80],"enabling":[81,124],"ideal":[82],"conditions":[83],"for":[84],"modularity:":[85],"are":[87,145],"all":[88],"equal":[89],"interchangeable.":[91],"optimize":[93],"parameters":[95],"controller---shared":[99],"among":[100],"voxels---by":[102],"evolutionary":[103],"computation.":[104],"Crucially,":[105],"local":[109],"self-attention":[110],"mechanism":[111],"to":[115,127,153,178,191],"overcome":[116],"absence":[118],"communication":[121],"channels,":[122],"our":[125],"truly":[128],"driven":[130],"by":[131],"collective":[133],"intelligence":[134],"modules.":[137],"show":[139],"experimentally":[140],"evolved":[143,175],"effective":[146],"task":[149,193],"locomotion:":[151],"thanks":[152],"self-attention,":[154],"instances":[155],"embodied":[160],"robot":[164],"inputs.":[169],"also":[171],"find":[172],"generalize":[177],"unseen":[179],"morphologies,":[180],"after":[181],"short":[183],"fine-tuning,":[184],"suggesting":[185],"inductive":[188],"bias":[189],"related":[190],"arises":[194],"from":[195],"true":[196],"modularity.1":[197]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2026,"cited_by_count":1},{"year":2025,"cited_by_count":2},{"year":2024,"cited_by_count":7},{"year":2023,"cited_by_count":12},{"year":2022,"cited_by_count":4}],"updated_date":"2026-06-11T09:08:48.828518","created_date":"2025-10-10T00:00:00"}