Bio-Inspired Plastic Neural Networks for Zero-Shot Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Complex Animal-Inspired Robots

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Leung, Binggwong, Haomachai, Worasuchad, Pedersen, Joachim Winther, Risi, Sebastian, Manoonpong, Poramate
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Leung, Binggwong
Haomachai, Worasuchad
Pedersen, Joachim Winther
Risi, Sebastian
Manoonpong, Poramate
author_facet Leung, Binggwong
Haomachai, Worasuchad
Pedersen, Joachim Winther
Risi, Sebastian
Manoonpong, Poramate
contents Artificial neural networks can be used to solve a variety of robotic tasks. However, they risk failing catastrophically when faced with out-of-distribution (OOD) situations. Several approaches have employed a type of synaptic plasticity known as Hebbian learning that can dynamically adjust weights based on local neural activities. Research has shown that synaptic plasticity can make policies more robust and help them adapt to unforeseen changes in the environment. However, networks augmented with Hebbian learning can lead to weight divergence, resulting in network instability. Furthermore, such Hebbian networks have not yet been applied to solve legged locomotion in complex real robots with many degrees of freedom. In this work, we improve the Hebbian network with a weight normalization mechanism for preventing weight divergence, analyze the principal components of the Hebbian's weights, and perform a thorough evaluation of network performance in locomotion control for real 18-DOF dung beetle-like and 16-DOF gecko-like robots. We find that the Hebbian-based plastic network can execute zero-shot sim-to-real adaptation locomotion and generalize to unseen conditions, such as uneven terrain and morphological damage.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_12406
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bio-Inspired Plastic Neural Networks for Zero-Shot Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Complex Animal-Inspired Robots
Leung, Binggwong
Haomachai, Worasuchad
Pedersen, Joachim Winther
Risi, Sebastian
Manoonpong, Poramate
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial neural networks can be used to solve a variety of robotic tasks. However, they risk failing catastrophically when faced with out-of-distribution (OOD) situations. Several approaches have employed a type of synaptic plasticity known as Hebbian learning that can dynamically adjust weights based on local neural activities. Research has shown that synaptic plasticity can make policies more robust and help them adapt to unforeseen changes in the environment. However, networks augmented with Hebbian learning can lead to weight divergence, resulting in network instability. Furthermore, such Hebbian networks have not yet been applied to solve legged locomotion in complex real robots with many degrees of freedom. In this work, we improve the Hebbian network with a weight normalization mechanism for preventing weight divergence, analyze the principal components of the Hebbian's weights, and perform a thorough evaluation of network performance in locomotion control for real 18-DOF dung beetle-like and 16-DOF gecko-like robots. We find that the Hebbian-based plastic network can execute zero-shot sim-to-real adaptation locomotion and generalize to unseen conditions, such as uneven terrain and morphological damage.
title Bio-Inspired Plastic Neural Networks for Zero-Shot Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Complex Animal-Inspired Robots
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.12406