Related papers: Closed-loop robots driven by short-term synaptic p…
Short-term synaptic plasticity (STP) is often regarded as a presynaptic filter of spikes, independent of postsynaptic activity. Recent experiments, however, indicate an associative STP that depends on pre- and postsynaptic coactivation. We…
Grounding autonomous behavior in the nervous system is a fundamental challenge for neuroscience. In particular, the self-organized behavioral development provides more questions than answers. Are there special functional units for…
Robots will become ubiquitously useful only when they can use few attempts to teach themselves to perform different tasks, even with complex bodies and in dynamical environments. Vertebrates, in fact, successfully use trial-and-error to…
We propose a modular architecture for neuromorphic closed-loop control based on bistable relaxation oscillator modules consisting of three spiking neurons each. Like its biological prototypes, this basic component is robust to parameter…
Animals possess a remarkable ability to navigate challenging terrains, achieved through the interplay of various pathways between the brain, central pattern generators (CPGs) in the spinal cord, and musculoskeletal system. Traditional…
SLOT (Soft Legged Omnidirectional Tetrapod), a tendon-driven soft quadruped robot with 3D-printed TPU legs, is presented to study physics-informed modeling and control of compliant legged locomotion using only four actuators. Each leg is…
Short-Term Synaptic Plasticity (STSP) strongly affects the neural dynamics of cortical networks. The Tsodyks and Markram (TM) model for STSP accurately accounts for a wide range of physiological responses at different types of cortical…
Inspired by spiking neural feedback, we propose a spiking controller for efficient locomotion in a soft robotic crawler. Its bistability, akin to neural fast positive feedback, combined with a sensorimotor slow negative feedback loop,…
We examine the problem of snake-like locomotion by studying a system consisting of a planar inextensible elastic rod that is able to control its spontaneous curvature. Using a Cosserat model we derive, through variational principles, the…
Soft robots are robotic systems made of deformable materials and exhibit unique flexibility that can be exploited for complex environments and tasks. However, their control problem has been considered a challenging subject because they are…
Passivity is necessary for robots to fluidly collaborate and interact with humans physically. Nevertheless, due to the unconstrained nature of passivity-based impedance control laws, the robot is vulnerable to infeasible and unsafe…
Recently, researchers have explored control methods that embrace nonlinear dynamic coupling instead of suppressing it. Such designs leverage dynamical coupling for communication between different parts of the robot. Morphological…
Robotic materials are multi-robot systems formulated to leverage the low-order computation and actuation of the constituents to manipulate the high-order behavior of the entire material. We study the behaviors of ensembles composed of smart…
The synaptic connectivity of cortex is plastic, with experience shaping the ongoing interactions between neurons. Theoretical studies of spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) have focused on either just pairs of neurons or large-scale…
We investigate spike-timing dependent plasticity (STPD) in the case of a synapse connecting two neural cells. We develop a theoretical analysis of several STDP rules using Markovian theory. In this context there are two different…
We present a locomotion mechanism that uses the stick-slip transition of a soft passive structure with an internal mechanical resonance. The structure is harmonically driven by a global vertical shaking and, because of its resonance…
Active matter composed of energy-generating microscopic constituents is a promising platform to create autonomous functional materials. However, the very presence of these microscopic energy sources is what makes active matter prone to…
Spring Loaded Inverted Pendulum (SLIP) model has a long history in describing running behavior in animals and humans as well as has been used as a design basis for robots capable of dynamic locomotion. Anchoring the SLIP for lossy physical…
Working memory (WM) has been intensively used to enable the temporary storing of information for processing purposes, playing an important role in the execution of various cognitive tasks. Recent studies have shown that information in WM is…
In this paper, we present a controller that combines motion generation and control in one loop, to endow robots with reactivity and safety. In particular, we propose a control approach that enables to follow the motion plan of a first order…