Flexible and multistable pattern generation by evolving constrained plastic neurocontrollers

摘要

In evolutionary robotics, plastic neural network models proved to be promising for evolving adaptive behaviors. In particular, neurocontrollers incorporating hebbian synapses have been shown to be useful for implementing conflicting sub-behaviors. Numerous interesting complex tasks assume such flexibility. However, those evolved controllers often exhibit behavioral instability, as simulation time is extended beyond the short limit used during evolution. In this paper, we propose constrained plastic models inspired by neural homeostasis phenomena, in order to evolve flexible and stable pattern generators for single-legged locomotion. Comparative results show that constrained controllers perform better than unconstrained ones in both terms of evolvability and behavioral stability. Functional analyses of the best evolved controller unveil the adaptivity, robustness and homeostasis arising from the statically constrained plasticity. Interestingly, homeostasis evolved implicitly without relying on any active homeostatic mechanisms and is implemented through hebbian plasticity, usually considered destabilizing.