Miro: a Distributed Embedded Architecture for Visually- Guided Neuroethological Autonomous Robots

An alternative to traditional simulation of biological behavior is to investigate problems in neuroethology, the study of neural basis for behavior, by developing embedded physical robot models. While a number of neuroethological robot models have been developed, these tend to be quite expensive in terms of computational needs. Two different approaches have been taken to neurotheological robot design: (1) having fully local computation in the robotic system, and, (2) distributing processing between robot and a remote computer system. While the first approach simplifies the overall robotic architecture it involves usually specialized and expensive hardware. The second approach considers smaller and less expensive components, where robots are used as remote sensorimotor devices. In this paper we present the MIRO (Mobile Internet Robots) architecture distributing processing between the robot and the NSL/ASL (Neural Simulation Language / Abstract Schema Language) neural simulation system. The distributed architecture enables a single computational system for both simulated and real-time robot experiments with the ability to monitor robot performance directly from the Internet. We discuss some of the issues having arisen in using the MIRO architecture while experimenting with a toad’s prey acquisition and predator avoidance neuroethological model. We conclude with future work in neuroethological modeling and the MIRO architecture.