CrickBot – a mobile robot with a bio-mimetic control architecture

This work is focalized on the study of a bio-inspired neural controller employed to govern a mobile robot. The control architecture is composed of different subnetworks that emulate the functions of some elementary circuits located in the nervous system of simple animals, like arthropods or invertebrates. The neuronal model mimics the behavior of the natural cells present in the animal, and elaborates the continuous signals coming from the robot’s sensors. The output generated by the controller, after scaling, commands the wheel rotation and therefore the robot’s linear and angular velocity. The mobile robot, thanks to the controller, presents different behaviors, like reaching a sonorous source, avoiding obstacles and finding the recharge stations. In the network architecture different modules, charged of different functionality, are regulated and coordinated using an inhibition mechanism. In order to test the control strategy and the neural architecture, we simulated the system in Matlab and finally in hardware using a mobile platform equipped with microphones and proximity sensors. Results show that the neural controller can govern the robot efficiently with performances comparable with those described about the animal.