Real-time planning and control of robots using shunting neural networks

Abstract

In this paper, shunting neural networks are proposed for dynamic planning and control of robots. The dynamic environment is represented by a neural activity landscape of a neural network, where each neuron in the topologically organized neural network is characterized by a shunting equation that is derived from Hodgkin and Huxley's (1952) biological membrane equation. The collision-free path is generated in real-time from the activity landscape without any explicit searching procedures and without any prior knowledge of the dynamic environment. The real-time tracking control of robots to follow the planned dynamic path is designed using shunting equation as well. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach are demonstrated through simulation and comparison studies. Simulation in several computer-synthesized virtual environments further demonstrates the advantages of the proposed approach with encouraging experimental results.