Biomorphic Robotics and Nervous Net Research:
A New Machine Control Paradigm
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/bushbo/beam/Biomorphic.html
Nervous Net (Nv) technology is a non-linear analog control system that solves
real time control problems normally quite difficult to handle with digital
methods. Nervous nets are to Neural nets the same way peripheral spinal systems
are to the brain. This work has concentrated on the development of Nv based
robot mechanisms with electronic approximations of biologic autonomic and
somatic systems. It has been demonstrated that these systems, when fed back onto
themselves rather than through a computer-based pattern generator, can
successfully mimic many of the attributes normally attributed to lower
biological organisms. Using Nv nets, highly successful legged robot mechanisms
have been demonstrated which can negotiate terrains of inordinate difficulty for
wheeled or tracked machines. That non-linear systems can provide this degree of
control is not so surprising as the part counts for successful Nv designs. A
fully adept insect-walker, for example, can be fully controlled and operated
with as little as 12 standard transistor elements.
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