Evolution of Robustness in an Electronics Design

Abstract. Evolutionary algorithms can design electronic circuits that conventional design methods cannot, because they can craft an emergent behaviour without the need for a detailed model of how the behaviours of the components affect the overall behaviour. However, the absence of such a model makes the achievement of robustness to variations in temperature, fabrication, etc., challenging. An experiment is presented showing that a robust design can be evolved without having to resort to conventional restrictive design constraints, by testing in different conditions during evolution. Surprisingly, the result tentatively suggests that even within the domain of robust digital design, evolution can explore beyond the scope of conventional methods. 1 Rationale Evolutionary algorithms can design electronic circuits that conventional electronics design methods cannot. Take a basic notion of an evolutionary process as the repeated action of selection upon individuals replicating with heritable variations [6]. Then an evolutionary algorithm can proceed by making undirected stochastic variations; a selection mechanism makes those variations that give rise to better observed behaviour more likely to persist, to be further embellished by subsequent rounds of variation and selection. In contrast, every step in the derivation of a circuit design using conventional methods is taken with respect to some model of how it will affect final circuit behaviour. Even in a stage of iterative modification and testing, the alterations are chosen with reference to some model of their expected effect