BEAM Robotics

BEAM (Biology Electronics Aesthetics and Mechanics) Robotics , it is an approach to robotics using simple analog circuits rather than using micro-processors or micro-controllers. This concept uses a type of circuit configuration which mainly consists of a neural network referred as "Nervous Net" or "Nv Net" whose element are none other than artificial neurons.

Why??
Reduce the cost and complexity of the design. It takes less time to build a Beam-Robot rather than designing traditional machines, also the size of Beam Robots are smaller than traditional robots.

Nv Neuron ???
Artificial neurons are made of a resistor, capacitor and a NOT gate.

The above type of arrangement form a differential element in a circuit (since input is couple via capacitor) and is called a Nv Neuron.

How Does it Work??

When a positive raising voltage is applied to the input, the voltage at the other side of the capacitor instantly raises to 5V (assuming you applying 5V) , the Nv inverter output drops to 0 in just a few nano-seconds. Then the capacitor charges and the voltage at the other side of the capacitor starts to decay exponentially with respect to time and goes to zero when the capacitor get fully charged. During this the input to the inverter (the NOT gate) crosses the threshold causing the inverter output going to 5V resulting in a positive voltage transition.

Creating a Logic Using Nv Neurons

A single neuron is useless, you have to connect multiple neurons in order to create some logic to achieve the response required for your application. The core concept is the timing with which it responds to the voltage change. A simple way how the respond can be checked by designing the circuit and attach LED's to the output pins and see how the pattern is. These are generally referred to a bicore, tricore, quadcore.... based on the number of neurons used.