Emulating a central pattern generator (CPG) using CMOS neuron and memristor-based synapse

Abstract

Most rhythmic patterns of animal behaviors are produced by central pattern generators (CPGs) found in central nervous system. Hardware implementation of CPGs offers neural prosthesis to restore lost functions due to neurological disease or injury. It also can be applied to industrial technology such as robotics. In this paper, emulation of a CPG using CMOS neurons and memristor-based synapses is proposed. The proposed CPG comprises two Izhikevich neurons and two memristor-based synapses. The CMOS circuit is designed and simulated in a 0.35μm CMOS technology. Using memristors allows adjusting the synaptic weights which affects the rate of bursting patterns.