Self-Organization of Spinal Reflexes through Soft Musculoskeletal Interactions
There has been a long-standing debate on the question of how basic reflexive behaviours in mammals come about. Recently, it has been hypothesized that soft musculoskeletal interactions, such as intrinsic passive dynamics, might play a crucial role in the development of motor control at an early developmental stage. Inspired by the developmental processes, this paper explores a learning framework that enables us to systematically investigate the sensorimotor activity induced in soft musculoskeletal systems, as well as to self-organize a set of decentralized controllers analogue to spinal reflexes in mammals. This paper particularly focuses on three reflexes: the Myotatic reflex, the Reciprocal Inhibition reflex and the Reverse Myotatic reflex. We tested our framework in a simulated pair of soft muscles assembled in an agonist-antagonist arrangement. Our results show that the reflex circuitry as well as the reflex behaviour obtained are consistent with those observed in the mammal spinal cord.
2012
606
611
REVIEWED
OTHER
Event name | Event place | Event date |
Rome, Italy | June 24-27, 2012 | |