Fast sensory motor control based on event-based hybrid neuromorphic-procedural system

Fast sensory-motor processing is challenging when using traditional frame-based cameras and computers. Here the authors show how a hybrid neuromorphic-procedural system consisting of an address-event silicon retina, a computer, and a servo motor can be used to implement a fast sensory-motor reactive controller to track and block balls shot at a goal. The system consists of a 128times128 retina that asynchronously reports scene reflectance changes, a laptop PC, and a servo motor controller. Components are interconnected by USB. The retina looks down onto the field in front of the goal. Moving objects are tracked by an event-driven cluster tracker algorithm that detects the ball as the nearest object that is approaching the goal. The ball´s position and velocity are used to control the servo motor. Running under Windows XP, the reaction latency is 2.8plusmn0.5 ms at a CPU load of <10% with a minimum observed latency of 1.8 ms. A 2 GHz Pentium M laptop can process at >1 million events per second (Meps), although fast balls only create ~30 keps. This system demonstrates the advantages of hybrid event-based sensory motor processing