Evolvable hardware using evolutionary computation to design and optimize hardware systems
Jason D. Lohn, Gregory S. Hornby · IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine · 2006
Abstract: Evolvable hardware lies at the intersection of evolutionary computation and physical design. Through the use of evolutionary computation methods, the field seeks to develop a variety of technologies that enable automatic design, adaptation, and reconfiguration of electrical and mechanical hardware systems in ways that outperform conventional techniques. This article surveys evolvable hardware with emphasis on some of the latest developments, many of which deliver performance exceeding traditional methods. As such, the field of evolvable hardware is just now starting to emerge from the research laboratory and into mainstream hardware applications. The central idea behind evolvable hardware is to gain the ability to automatically design and optimize electrical and mechanical structures by harnessing the power of an evolutionary algorithm. For example, one could apply a genetic algorithm to automatically design an airplane wing to maximize lift and minimize drag. The range of applications is wide and encompasses of multitude of application