title: A simple neuron servo.
abstract: A simple servo controller built from components having neuronlike features is described. This VLSI servo controller uses pulses for control and is orders of magnitude smaller than a conventional system. The basic circuit elements are described. A key element is a component and neuronlike capability that takes voltages as inputs and generates a pulse train as the output. It is shown how the circuits are combined to a proportional and derivative controller. The advantages of using a pulsed output representation to improve slow-speed operation of a friction-limited system is demonstrated. The utility of exploiting parallelism, aggregation, and redundancy to improve system-level performance given imprecise low-level components is discussed. Experimental results illustrate the properties of the system compared with conventional controllers.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Comput. Sci., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA.
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Deweerth
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Mead
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Astrom