Learning Anticipation via Spiking Networks: Application to Navigation Control

In this paper, we introduce a network of spiking neurons devoted to navigation control. Three different examples, dealing with stimuli of increasing complexity, are investigated. In the first one, obstacle avoidance in a simulated robot is achieved through a network of spiking neurons. In the second example, a second layer is designed aiming to provide the robot with a target approaching system, making it able to move towards visual targets. Finally, a network of spiking neurons for navigation based on visual cues is introduced. In all cases, the robot was assumed to rely on some a priori known responses to low-level sensors (i.e., to contact sensors in the case of obstacles, to proximity target sensors in the case of visual targets, or to the visual target for navigation with visual cues). Based on their knowledge, the robot has to learn the response to high-level stimuli (i.e., range finder sensors or visual input). The biologically plausible paradigm of spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is included in the network to make the system able to learn high-level responses that guide navigation through a simple unstructured environment. The learning procedure is based on classical conditioning.