Robot Brains: Circuits and Systems for Conscious Machines

4

Circuit assemblies

4.1 THE ASSOCIATIVE NEURON GROUP

A general associative neuron group circuit is used as the basic building block for the systems and circuits that are described in the following chapters. This circuit utilizes an enhanced associator that is realized as a group of the Haikonen associative neurons. Figure 4.1 depicts the associative neuron group and its simplified drawing symbol.

The input signals for the associative neuron group are: the main signal vector S = {s(0), s( 1),…, s(m)}, the associative input signal vector A = {a(0), a(1),…, a(n)}, the learning control signal, the threshold control signal for the associative input signal thresholds THa, the threshold control signal for the evocation output thresholds TH and the SW switch control signal. The output signals are: the output signal vector SO = {so(0), so(1),…, so(m)}, the match signal m, the mismatch signal mm and the novelty signal n. The main signal inputs for s(i) have their own input threshold circuits THs. Depending on the application, these thresholds may utilize linear or limiting threshold functions (see Section 3.1.4). Likewise, the associative signal inputs for a(j) have also their own input threshold circuits THa. These thresholds operate according to the Winner-Takes-All principle; all associative input signals that share the maximum value are accepted. Thus the input signals may have continuous values, but the signals that are passed to the associative matrix have the discrete values of one ...