PlaNeural: Spiking Neural Networks that Plan

PlaNeural is a spike-based neural network that has the ability to plan. The network is a spreading activation network implemented with Cell Assemblies; this combination has built a dynamic network of nodes that is able to interact with an environment and respond appropriately. PlaNeural uses Cell Assemblies to make decisions and plan - there is no pre-determined code managing the decision process that leads to planning. PlaNeural is the planning component of a virtual robot in a virtual environment. This paper describes PlaNeural's behaviour in two virtual environments, programmed independently of it; actions are completed in a closed-loop. PlaNeural was programmed in PyNN, executed with Nest and on a neuromorphic platform, SpiNNaker. PlaNeural has been tested on two environments and results show a successful performance; in both cases PlaNeural takes appropriate actions to fulfil user selected goals based on environmental changes.