Spiking neural networks (SNN) are the third generation of artificial neural networks. SNN are the closest approximation to biological neural networks. SNNs make use of temporal spike trains to command inputs and outputs, allowing a faster and more complex computation. As demonstrated by biological organisms, they are a potentially good approach to designing controllers for highly nonlinear dynamic systems in which the performance of controllers developed by conventional techniques is not satisfactory or difficult to implement. SNN-based controllers exploit their ability for online learning and self-adaptation to evolve when transferred from simulations to the real world. SNN’s inherent binary and temporary way of information codification facilitates their hardware implementation compared to analog neurons. Biological neural networks often require a lower number of neurons compared to other controllers based on artificial neural networks. In this work, these neuronal systems are imitated to perform the control of non-linear dynamic systems. For this purpose, a control structure based on spiking neural networks has been designed. Particular attention has been paid to optimizing the structure and size of the neural network. The proposed structure is able to control dynamic systems with a reduced number of neurons and connections. A supervised learning process using evolutionary algorithms has been carried out to perform controller training. The efficiency of the proposed network has been verified in two examples of dynamic systems control. Simulations show that the proposed control based on SNN exhibits superior performance compared to other approaches based on Neural Networks and SNNs.
