Towards the Evolution of an Artificial Homeostatic System

This paper presents an artificial homeostatic system (AHS) devoted to the autonomous navigation of mobile robots, with emphasis on neuro-endocrine interactions. The AHS is composed of two modules, each one associated with a particular reactive task and both implemented using an extended version of the GasNet neural model, denoted spatially unconstrained GasNet model or simply non-spatial GasNet (NSGasNet). There is a coordination system, which is responsible for the specific role of each NSGasNet at a given operational condition. The switching among the NSGasNets is implemented as an artificial endocrine system (AES), which is based on a system of coupled nonlinear difference equations. The NSGasNets are synthesized by means of an evolutionary algorithm. The obtained neuro-endocrine controller is adopted in simulated and real benchmark applications, and the additional flexibility provided by the use of NSGasNet, together with the existence of an automatic coordination system, guides to convincing levels of performance.