Adaptive Sensor-Driven Neural Control for Learning in Walking Machines

Abstract. Wild rodents learn the danger-predicting meaning of predator bird calls through the paring of cues which are an aversive stimulus (immediate danger signal or unconditioned stimulus, US) and the acoustic stimulus (predator signal or conditioned stimulus, CS). This learning is a form of pavlovian conditioning. In analogy, in this article a setup is described where adaptive sensor-driven neural control is used to simulate biologically-inspired acoustic predator-recognition learning for a safe escape on a six-legged walking machine. As a result, the controller allows the walking machine to learn the association of a predictive acoustic signal (predator signal, CS) and a reflex infrared signal (immediate danger signal, US). Such that after learning the machine performs fast walking behavior when "hearing" an approaching predator from behind leading to safely escape from the attack. Key words: Learned predator recognition, Associative learning, Legged robots, Sound, Refle...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2009
• Where: ICONIP
• Authors: Poramate Manoonpong, Florentin Wörgötter
• Keywords: ICONIP 2009, Immediate Danger, Information Technology, Predator, Predator Signal