FPGA Implementation of Self-Organized Spiking Neural Network Controller for Mobile Robots

Spiking neural network, a computational model which uses spikes to process the information, is good candidate for mobile robot controller. In this paper, we present a novel mechanism for controlling mobile robots based on self-organized spiking neural network (SOSNN) and introduce a method for FPGA implementation of this SOSNN. The spiking neuron we used is Izhikevich model. A key feature of this controller is that it can simulate the process of unconditioned reflex (avoid obstacles using infrared sensor signals) and conditioned reflex (make right choices in multiple T-maze) by spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) learning and dopamine-receptor modulation. Experimental results show that the proposed controller is effective and is easy to implement. The FPGA implementation method aims to build up a specific network using generic blocks designed in the MATLAB Simulink environment. The main characteristics of this original solution are: on-chip learning algorithm implementation, high reconfiguration capability, and operation under real time constraints. An extended analysis has been carried out on the hardware resources used to implement the whole SOSNN network, as well as each individual component block.