Can Spiking Neural Networks play pinball? A neuromorphic motion detector for target tracking

2026-09-21

AI Summary

研究使用脉冲神经网络和事件相机解决快速目标跟踪问题，通过SpiNNaker平台实现低延迟、低能耗的实时弹球游戏控制。

Abstract

Biological visual systems achieve continuous, low-latency motion perception by processing sparse, asynchronous spiking signals, enabling real-time tracking under strict energy constraints. Event-based cameras, inspired by the mammalian retina, replicate this efficiency by capturing only local brightness changes as asynchronous events, offering a natural substrate for spiking neural networks (SNNs) to parallelise computation and adapt to fast-changing scenes. Pinball provides a controlled yet dynamic testbed, requiring precise motion estimation and fast reaction to a small, rapidly moving target. This work presents a fully spiking, real-time perception-to-action pipeline for closed-loop pinball gameplay. A dynamic vision sensor observes a small, fast-moving ball, and a network of spiking Time-Difference Encoders on the SpiNNaker neuromorphic platform jointly estimates its position, speed, and direction. The system is characterised across receptive field size, accumulation window, and angular tuning width for real-time operation, and benchmarked in closed loop against human players across two flipper regimes of increasing physical realism. It achieves a hit rate of 56.1%, nearly double the human average, reacting within 21.7 ms (5 ms network latency) and consuming an estimated 148 μW using fewer than 25k neurons, among the fastest and most energy-efficient event-based closed-loop demonstrators benchmarked. Under more realistic flipper dynamics, tuning a single interpretable policy parameter reproduces the full spectrum of human play styles, from cautious to aggressive, with no change to the perception pipeline. A physical demonstrator, tracking a real ball and actuating real flippers in closed loop, confirms the principle operates beyond simulation. Its fully spiking, learning-free design offers a compact, energy-efficient example of real-time neuromorphic perception-to-action.

Problem

• Spiking Neural Networks
• Target Tracking
• Real-time Perception
• Event-based Cameras
• Neuromorphic Computing

Innovation

• Spiking Neural Networks
• Neuromorphic Computing
• Real-time Perception
• Energy Efficiency
• Closed-loop Control