Laurent Keller

About

Laurent Keller is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of evolutionary biology and robotics, whose work fundamentally reshapes our understanding of social behavior, communication, and cooperation. His key research areas include the evolution of altruism, communication reliability, and collective decision-making, which he explores through groundbreaking experimental evolution with robots. Keller’s major contributions include demonstrating how Hamilton’s rule governs altruism in evolving robot populations (75 citations), and revealing that genetic relatedness critically influences signal reliability in communication systems (62 citations). His landmark 2000 paper on ant-like task allocation in cooperative robots (350 citations) established foundational principles for swarm robotics, while his 2007 work on the emergence of communication (254 citations) provided quantitative evidence for evolutionary conditions favoring information exchange. Keller’s 2012 synthesis on using robots to understand social behavior (114 citations) has become a touchstone for researchers studying collective phenomena. His work on historical contingency in signaling strategies (42 citations) and altruistic robots (37 citations) further demonstrates how evolutionary history shapes behavioral outcomes. With over 1,200 total citations across his most influential papers, Keller has pioneered the use of embodied artificial agents as experimental models for testing fundamental evolutionary theories, bridging the gap between theoretical biology and practical robotics.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Ant-like task allocation and recruitment in cooperative robots

   350 citations · 2000
2. 2
   Evolutionary Conditions for the Emergence of Communication in Robots

   254 citations · 2007
3. 3
   Evolution of Adaptive Behaviour in Robots by Means of Darwinian Selection

   152 citations · 2010
4. 4
   Using robots to understand social behaviour

   114 citations · 2012
5. 5
   The evolution of information suppression in communicating robots with conflicting interests

   79 citations · 2009
6. 6
   A Quantitative Test of Hamilton's Rule for the Evolution of Altruism

   75 citations · 2011
7. 7
   Relatedness influences signal reliability in evolving robots

   62 citations · 2010
8. 8
   Historical contingency affects signaling strategies and competitive abilities in evolving populations of simulated robots

   42 citations · 2012
9. 9
   Evolution of Altruistic Robots

   37 citations · 2008
10. 10
    Effects of Group Composition and Level of Selection in the Evolution of Cooperation in Artificial Ants

    30 citations · 2003

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links