A cognitive model with growing structure and its application to learning to control the inverted pendulum

A growing cognitive model of motor balance skill, which simulates the manners of human beings and animals in motor balance skill learning, is constructed. A neuro-controller based on the model is proposed to balance an inverted pendulum. The cognitive model, whose architecture is similar to the reflex arc of the biologic nerve, adopts a growing algorithm from reference to growing cell structures in order to perform the pattern classification in the nerve center. This growing mechanism is able to be evolved through the continuous growing of the new nerve cell. And reinforcement Hebbian synaptic modification is used as the self-learning method in the cognitive model to make the neurons in difference fields to respond to the different stimulus in the best way. The experimental results are shown that the growing cognitive model can interact autonomously with the environment and develop the motor balance skill by the growing manners of neural system itself.