Modular neural networks for multi-class object recognition

Multi-class object recognition is a critical capability for an intelligence robot to perceive its environment. In this paper, a new approach consisting of a number of modular neural networks is proposed to recognize multiple classes of objects for a robotic system. The population of the modular neural networks depends on the class number of the objects to be recognized and each modular network only focuses on learning one object class. For each modular neural network, both the bottom-up (sensory-driven) and top-down (expectation-driven) pathways are fused together, and a supervised learning algorithm is applied to update corresponding weights of both pathways. Furthermore, two different training strategies are evaluated: positive-only training and positive-and-negative training. Experiments on visual image recognition demonstrate the efficiencies of the proposed approach and the corresponding training strategies.