Title:
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Biologically inspired sensory processing for mobile robots using Spiking Neural Networks
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This thesis is focused on research into biologically inspired sensory fusion for a
mobile robot. The approach is based upon a bio-inspired Liquid State Machine
(Reservoir Computing) paradigm, utilising Spiking Neural Networks in the
reservoir as the core of the sensory fusion system, with a conventional classical
artificial neural network in the readout phase. The connectivity and structure
of the LSM is inspired by the biological example of the mammalian brain and
in particular by the connectivity of the somatosensory cortex.
The use of the reservoir computing paradigm allows for effective integration
of data from different sensory modalities within the reservoir and permits
snapshots of the internal state to be captured for subsequent processing. The
use of such an approach provides a novel method for autonomous systems to
combine information, in a method which is more closely inspired by nature.
The experimental analysis of this research investigates a robot traversing an
environment using multiple sensory inputs from multiple sensor types and
experiencing varying sensory conditions. The research investigates parameters
for sensor data coding and creating a LSM for processing sensor information.
An LSM structure is presented to combine the sensor information within its
structure. The empirical assessment of the LSM sensor fusion experiments of
the robot obstacle avoidance is presented. The experiments demonstrate how
the fusing of separate sensor data in the LSM improves the performance of the
robot over the performance of processing a single sensor type in the LSM
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