Emergent common functional principles in control theory and the vertebrate brain: A case study with autonomous vehicle control

Hussain, A.; Gurney, K.; Abdullah, R.; Chambers, J.

Abstract

This paper describes emergent neurobiological characteristics of an intelligent multiple-controller that has been developed for controlling the throttle, brake and steering subsystems of a validated vehicle model. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Importantly, the controller exhibits discrete behaviours, governed by its two component controllers. These controllers are selected according to task demands by a fuzzy-logic based supervisor. The system therefore displays ‘action selection’ under central switched control, as has been proposed to take place in the vertebrate brain. In addition, the supervisor and modular controllers have analogues with the higher and lower levels of functionality associated with the strata in layered brain architectures. Several further similarities are identified between the biology and the vehicle controller. We conclude that advances in neuroscience and control theory have reached a critical mass which make it timely for a new rapprochement of these disciplines.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: ICANN: International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks
• Start Date: Sep 3, 2008
• End Date: Sep 6, 2008
• Publication Date: 2008
• Deposit Date: Oct 15, 2019
• Publisher: Springer
• Pages: 949-958
• Series Title: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Series Number: 5164
• Series ISSN: 0302-9743
• Book Title: Artificial Neural Networks - ICANN 2008
• ISBN: 978-3-540-87558-1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87559-8_98
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1793542