论文标题
通过具体的尖峰神经细胞自动机对模块化软机器人的集体控制
Collective control of modular soft robots via embodied Spiking Neural Cellular Automata
论文作者
论文摘要
基于体素的软机器人（VSR）是模块化软机器人的一种形式，由几个可变形立方体组成，即体素。因此，每个VSR都是简单代理的合奏，即体素，必须配合以产生整体VSR行为。在此范式中，集体智能在使协调的出现方面起着关键作用，因为每个素素都是独立控制的，仅利用本地感觉信息以及从其直接邻居（分布式或集体控制）传递的一些知识。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种新型的集体控制形式，受神经细胞自动机（NCA）的影响，并基于生物启发的尖峰神经网络：体现的尖峰NCA（SNCA）。我们尝试使用不同的SNCA变体，并发现它们与最先进的分布式控制器具有竞争力。此外，就无法预见的环境变化的适应性而言，我们的发现在基线方面显示出显着改善，这可能是VSR物理实用性的决定因素。
Voxel-based Soft Robots (VSRs) are a form of modular soft robots, composed of several deformable cubes, i.e., voxels. Each VSR is thus an ensemble of simple agents, namely the voxels, which must cooperate to give rise to the overall VSR behavior. Within this paradigm, collective intelligence plays a key role in enabling the emerge of coordination, as each voxel is independently controlled, exploiting only the local sensory information together with some knowledge passed from its direct neighbors (distributed or collective control). In this work, we propose a novel form of collective control, influenced by Neural Cellular Automata (NCA) and based on the bio-inspired Spiking Neural Networks: the embodied Spiking NCA (SNCA). We experiment with different variants of SNCA, and find them to be competitive with the state-of-the-art distributed controllers for the task of locomotion. In addition, our findings show significant improvement with respect to the baseline in terms of adaptability to unforeseen environmental changes, which could be a determining factor for physical practicability of VSRs.
