University of Ulster.
Artif Life. 2014 Spring;20(2):223-35. doi: 10.1162/ARTL_a_00108. Epub 2014 Feb 4.
Braitenberg vehicles are well-known models of animal behavior used as steering mechanisms in mobile robotics and artificial life. Because of their simplicity, they are mainly used for teaching robotics, while the lack of a quantitative theory has limited their use for research purposes. This article contributes to our formal understanding of Braitenberg vehicle 3a by presenting the convergence properties of its trajectories under parabolic-shaped stimuli. We show previously unreported features of the motion of the vehicle: the conditional stability, the oscillatory behavior, and the existence of periodic trajectories. The mathematical model used provides a theoretical relation between the environment, the internal control mechanism of the vehicle, and some morphological parameters, a link already found in experimental works. This work provides theoretical support for experimental research using Braitenberg vehicle 3a, and paves the way for further research in biology, robotics, and artificial life.
布赖滕贝格车辆是众所周知的动物行为模型，被用作移动机器人和人工生命中的转向机制。由于其简单性，它们主要用于机器人教学，而缺乏定量理论限制了它们在研究目的中的使用。本文通过展示其在抛物线形状刺激下轨迹的收敛特性，为我们对布赖滕贝格车辆 3a 的形式理解做出了贡献。我们展示了车辆运动的以前未报告的特征：条件稳定性、振荡行为和周期性轨迹的存在。所使用的数学模型提供了环境、车辆内部控制机制和一些形态参数之间的理论关系，这一关系在实验工作中已经发现。这项工作为使用布赖滕贝格车辆 3a 的实验研究提供了理论支持，并为生物学、机器人学和人工生命的进一步研究铺平了道路。
