This paper considers evolutionary methods of symbolic regression for the creation of artificial intelligence of robotic systems. Methods of symbolic regression are reviewed and the features of their application to the solution of the problem of synthesis of control of robotic systems are indicated. The measure of the complexity of artificial intelligence is determined and the advantage of using the principle of small variations of the basic solution is shown, while creating intelligent control systems. A method of variational analytic programming is described and an example of its use for the synthesis of intellectual control is given. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 13th International Symposium “Intelligent Systems” (INTELS'18).