AER and dynamic systems co-simulation over Simulink with Xilinx System Generator

Abstract

Address-event representation (AER) is a neuromorphic communication protocol for transferring information of spiking neurons implemented into VLSI chips. These neuro-inspired implementations have been used to design sensor chips (retina, cochleas), processing chips (convolutions, filters) and learning chips, what makes possible the development of complex, multilayer, multichip neuromorphic systems. In biology one of the last steps of the processing is to move a muscle, to apply the results of these complex neuromorphic processing to the real world. One interesting question is to be able to transform, or translate, the AER information into robot movements, like for example, moving a DC motor. This paper presents several ways to translate AER spikes into DC motor power, and to control a DC motor speed, based on Pulse Frequency Modulation. These methods have been simulated into Simulink with Xilinx system generator, and tested into the AER-Robot platform.