Embodied Evolution and Learning: The Neglected Timing of Maturation

One advantage of the asynchronous and distributed character of embodied evolution is that it can be executed on real robots without external supervision. Further, evolutionary progress can be measured in real time instead of in generation based evaluation cycles. By combining embodied evolution with lifetime learning, we investigated a largely neglected aspect with respect to the common assumption that learning can guide evolution, the influence of maturation time during which an individual can develop its behavioral skills. Even though we found only minor differences between the evolution with and without learning, our results, derived from competitive evolution in predator-prey systems, demonstrate that the right timing of maturation is crucial for the progress of evolutionary success. Our findings imply that the time of maturation has to be considered more seriously as an important factor to build up empirical evidence for the hypothesis that learning facilitates evolution.