Artificial Homeostasis for Engineering Systems: Involuntary Reflexes in Physiologically-Inspired Control Applications

Complex Control Engineering Systems (CESs) are being required to increase self-governance as well as to support resilience mechanisms in order to deal with persistent autonomy, e.g. autonomous robots exploring very remote, big, and hostile areas. They mainly require continuous assurance of effective adaptation to unpredictable changes, and efficient management of resources. This paper presents an approach to deal with the above issues inspired by the physiological functions performed by peripheral nervous system in living systems. It endows CESs with autonomic management and persistent sustainment in order to build artificial reflex-driven homeostasis into CESs. This paper shows a case study of artificial involuntary reflexes in CESs, a discussion on realization aspects, and future research directions.