Evolvable hardware: on the automatic synthesis of analog control systems

The automatic design of analog control circuits is the focus of this work. Particularly, we apply Evolutionary Computation to carry out the process of circuit synthesis. Evolutionary Computation encompasses a set of search algorithms, called Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), which borrow from biological evolution their main principles. This particular area of research, where EAs are applied to electronic circuit synthesis, receives the name of Evolvable Hardware (EHW). Our technique differs from conventional approaches in that it considers specific circuit's implementation requirements, such as power dissipation, intrinsic noise and fault tolerance, in addition to standard specifications for control systems, such as rise time and over-signal. Our results compare well with conventionally designed controllers presented in the literature, exhibiting a lower degree of oscillation, using lesser components, and achieving better fault tolerance properties.