Embodied Evolutionary Self-Adaptation to Damage in Multi-Legged Robots

Embodied Evolutionary Self-Adaptation to Damage in Multi-Legged Robots | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Embodied Evolutionary Self-Adaptation to Damage in Multi-Legged Robots Sahand Farghdani, Robin Chhabra This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9706251/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Multi-legged robots deployed in complex missions are susceptible to physical damage in their legs, impairing locomotion performance and potentially compromising mission success. This letter presents a rapid, training-free self-modeling damage identification and recovery framework that enables autonomous adaptation to partial or complete leg loss using only data from a low-cost inertial measurement unit. A novel fast Fourier transform-based filtering approach is introduced to address time-inconsistent signals and improve damage detection by comparing the robot’s measured body orientation with its internal model. Upon identifying damaged limbs, the robot updates its model and stabilizes locomotion by generating a feasible gait sequence, followed by optimal gait reconfiguration using a differential evolution algorithm to maximize forward progression while minimizing body rotation and lateral drift. Experimental validation on uneven terrain demonstrates that the proposed framework can successfully restore loco-motion in a 24-degree-of-freedom hexapod within one hour, highlighting its robustness, computational efficiency, and effectiveness in recovering mobility under severe structural damage. Multi-legged Robot Damage Identification Damage Recovery Self-modeling Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryVideos.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9706251","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":639865076,"identity":"38ff8d5c-3dcb-42ab-9458-e3739bc683c5","order_by":0,"name":"Sahand Farghdani","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Carleton University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sahand","middleName":"","lastName":"Farghdani","suffix":""},{"id":639865077,"identity":"b4a36ad0-bd8c-4935-b9b2-c003bb049905","order_by":1,"name":"Robin Chhabra","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA8klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACHoYDQDLBAMhgYKggXcsZA5AQYwMhLQxwLYxtRGgxb+89eLiAwS7PnP3ssQ8/5/2RA4ocf/Ax5zADf/sBrFpkzpxLODyDIbnYsicveWbvNgNjoEhi48xthxkkziRg1SIhkWNwGOidxA0HcowZeLcZJM6QyDFs5gVqMWAgpOX8G2PGv3OQtfA/IKDlRo4xM28DshYJHLbwAP3CY5AM1PIumVnmmLGxBM8Zw5kzt6XzSNzAYQt77+HPPBV2QIflHmZ8UyMnJ8HeY/Dh4zZrOf5+7LZAgAEWMR486kfBKBgFo2AUEAAAm9Vd2WZ90xoAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Toronto Metropolitan University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Robin","middleName":"","lastName":"Chhabra","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-05-13 16:24:03","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9706251/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9706251/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":109465506,"identity":"a3b1d116-87ac-4ed2-b16c-32520722bca7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-18 11:56:52","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2654052,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"EmbodiedSelfAdaptationMLRs.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9706251/v1_covered_94628d18-6fae-467c-b6b8-828a9df840bf.pdf"},{"id":109246902,"identity":"e85f762f-f694-4f6d-9b79-e94bd4566fb3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-14 08:11:26","extension":"zip","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":124068949,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryVideos.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9706251/v1/5dfa9a2b9c704a96de0ed8f7.zip"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Embodied Evolutionary Self-Adaptation to Damage in Multi-Legged Robots","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Multi-legged Robot, Damage Identification, Damage Recovery, Self-modeling","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9706251/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9706251/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Multi-legged robots deployed in complex missions are susceptible to physical damage in their legs, impairing locomotion performance and potentially compromising mission success. This letter presents a rapid, training-free self-modeling damage identification and recovery framework that enables autonomous adaptation to partial or complete leg loss using only data from a low-cost inertial measurement unit. A novel fast Fourier transform-based filtering approach is introduced to address time-inconsistent signals and improve damage detection by comparing the robot’s measured body orientation with its internal model. Upon identifying damaged limbs, the robot updates its model and stabilizes locomotion by generating a feasible gait sequence, followed by optimal gait reconfiguration using a differential evolution algorithm to maximize forward progression while minimizing body rotation and lateral drift. Experimental validation on uneven terrain demonstrates that the proposed framework can successfully restore loco-motion in a 24-degree-of-freedom hexapod within one hour, highlighting its robustness, computational efficiency, and effectiveness in recovering mobility under severe structural damage.","manuscriptTitle":"Embodied Evolutionary Self-Adaptation to Damage in Multi-Legged Robots","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-05-14 08:11:17","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9706251/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"f24504e7-36d1-4e17-8791-bda1322250bc","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 14th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"decision","content":"Rejected","date":"2026-05-18T11:51:40+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-05-18T11:51:26+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-05-16T05:07:40+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Autonomous Robots","date":"2026-05-13T16:11:23+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-18T11:56:02+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-05-14 08:11:17","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9706251","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9706251","identity":"rs-9706251","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}