Braitenberg vehicles
In the middle of the last century, Valentino Braitenberg proposed a form of robot with simple neurons. Born in Italy, Braitenberg was a neuroscientist and cyberneticist who became the director of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany. He is most famous for his thought experiment – the Braitenberg vehicle featured in this course.
The Braitenburg vehicles shown in this video:
- Have simple ‘eyes’ sensitive to light
- These are connected to neurons which respond to the eyes
- Which are connected to motors which drive the robot’s wheels
The vehicles are put in an environment with lights. The robot’s behaviour is set by how the neurons are connected.
- The robot can be a ‘light seeker’
- Or a ‘light phobe’ (avoids light)
- Each behaviour can be ‘aggressive’ or ‘shy’
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