Adaptive Circadian Rhythms for Autonomous and Biologically Inspired Robot Behavior

Biological rhythms are periodic internal variations of living organisms that act as adaptive responses to environmental changes. The human pacemaker is the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a brain region involved in biological functions like homeostasis or emotion. Biological rhythms are ultradian (less than 24 h), circadian (~24 h), or infradian (>24 h) depending on their period. Circadian rhythms are the most studied since they regulate daily sleep, emotion, and activity. Ambient and internal stimuli, such as light or activity, influence the timing and the period of biological rhythms, making our bodies adapt to dynamic situations. Nowadays, robots experience unceasing development, assisting us in many tasks. Due to the dynamic conditions of social environments and human-robot interaction, robots exhibiting adaptive behavior have more possibilities to engage users by emulating human social skills. This paper presents a biologically inspired model based on circadian biorhythms for autonomous and adaptive robot behavior. The model uses the Dynamic Circadian Integrated Response Characteristic method to mimic human biology and control artificial biologically inspired functions influencing the robot's decision-making. The robot's clock adapts to light, ambient noise, and user activity, synchronizing the robot's behavior to the ambient conditions. The results show the adaptive response of the model to time shifts and seasonal changes of different ambient stimuli while regulating simulated hormones that are key in sleep/activity timing, stress, and autonomic basal heartbeat control during the day

Periodic Adaptive Activation of Behaviors in Robotic Systems

The main goal of our current research is the design of a robotic architecture that has the capability of adapting its behaviour to the rate of change of a dynamic environment. Taking free inspiration from some notions on biological clocks, we show a simple model to represent some characteristics typical of these clocks in terms of Schema Theory. In particular, referring to this model, we try to connect the concept of Innate Releasing Mechanisms (IRM) to the concept of periodical activation with the aim of taking into account the variability of the same behaviour according to the circumstances in which it is activated. We propose an architecture in which the frequency of access to the sensory system is modi¯ed in accordance to environmental changes

Periodic Adaptive Activation of Behaviors in Robotic Systems

The main goal of our current research is the design of a robotic architecture that has the capability of adapting its behaviour to the rate of change of a dynamic environment. Taking free inspiration from some notions on biological clocks, we show a simp