Human-like reflexes for robotic manipulation using leaky integrate-and-fire neurons

In this paper we present an approach to transfer human-like reflex behavior to robots by utilizing leaky integrate-and-fire neurons. For the acceptance of robots in general and humanoid robots, which are even closer to people's daily life, in particular a main aspect is their appearance and how they act and move in human centered environments. Especially safety strategies are crucial for a widespread acceptance of these machines. In our work we target this safety aspect by approaching this issue from the direction how humans respond to external stimuli. To achieve such human-like reflexes a general reflex unit, based on special variants of the leaky integrate-and-fire neuron model has been built. Instances of this reflex unit are adapted to special reflex types and connected to form dependent reflex behaviors. The concept of these neural structures and its evaluation by means of several experiments are presented in this paper. The results are depicted in detail and future aspects of our ongoing work are addressed.