BlindBuilder : a new encoding to evolve Lego-like structures

Abstract : This paper introduces a new representation for assemblies of small Lego-like elements: structures are indirectly encoded as construction plans. This representation shows some interesting properties such as hierarchy, modularity and easy constructibility checking by definition. Together with this representation, efficient GP operators are introduced that allow efficient and fast evolution, as witnessed by the results on two construction problems that demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to achieve both compactness and reusability of evolved components.