An Overview of In Vitro Biological Neural Networks for Robot Intelligence

In vitro biological neural networks(BNNs)interconnected with robots,so-called BNN-based neurorobotic systems,can interact with the external world,so that they can present some preliminary intelligent behaviors,including learning,memory,robot control,etc.This work aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the intelligent behaviors presented by the BNN-based neurorobotic systems,with a particular focus on those related to robot intelligence.In this work,we first introduce the necessary biological background to understand the 2 characteristics of the BNNs:nonlinear computing capacity and network plasticity.Then,we describe the typical architecture of the BNN-based neurorobotic systems and outline the mainstream techniques to realize such an architecture from 2 aspects:from robots to BNNs and from BNNs to robots.Next,we separate the intelligent behaviors into 2 parts according to whether they rely solely on the computing capacity(computing capacity-dependent)or depend also on the network plasticity(network plasticity-dependent),which are then expounded respectively,with a focus on those related to the realization of robot intelligence.Finally,the development trends and challenges of the BNNbased neurorobotic systems are discussed.