Building artificial CPGs with asymmetric Hopfield networks

This paper presents a novel approach to the emulation of locomotor central pattern generators (CPGs) of legged animals. Based on Scheduling by Multiple Edge Reversal (SMER), a simple but powerful distributed algorithm, it is shown how oscillatory building blocks (OBBs) can be created and how OBB-based networks can be implemented as asymmetric Hopfield-like neural networks for the generation of complicatedly coordinated rhythmic patterns observed among pairs of biological motor neurons working during different gait patterns. It is also presented how a generalized CPG model mapped into such Hopfield-like networks possess some charming properties on the retrieval of a whole range of different preprogrammed gait patterns.