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A probabilistic interpretation of PID controllers using active inference

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conference contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 15:41 authored by Manuel Baltieri, Christopher BuckleyChristopher Buckley
In the past few decades, probabilistic interpretations of brain functions have become widespread in cognitive science and neuroscience. The Bayesian brain hypothesis, predictive coding, the free energy principle and active inference are increasingly popular theories of cognitive functions that claim to unify understandings of life and cognition within general mathematical frameworks derived from information and control theory, statistical physics and machine learning. The connections between information and control theory have been discussed since the 1950’s by scientists like Shannon and Kalman and have recently risen to prominence in modern stochastic optimal control theory. However, the implications of the confluence of these two theoretical frameworks for the biological sciences have been slow to emerge. Here we argue that if the active inference proposal is to be taken as a general process theory for biological systems, we need to consider how existing control theoretical approaches to biological systems relate to it. In this work we will focus on PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) controllers, one of the most common types of regulators employed in engineering and more recently used to explain behaviour in biological systems, e.g. chemotaxis in bacteria and amoebae or robust adaptation in biochemical networks. Using active inference, we derive a probabilistic interpretation of PID controllers, showing how they can fit a more general theory of life and cognition under the principle of (variational) free energy minimisation under simple linear generative models.most common types of regulators employed in engineering and more recently used to explain behaviour in biological systems, e.g. chemotaxis in bacteria and amoebae or robust adaptation in biochemical networks. Using active inference, we derive a probabilistic interpretation of PID controllers, showing how they can fit a more general theory of life and cognition under the principle of (variational) free energy minimisation under simple linear generative models.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

From Animals to Animats 15: 15th International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, SAB 2018, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, August 14-17, 2018, Proceedings

ISSN

0302-9743

Publisher

Springer Verlag

Event name

SAB 2018: 15th International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior

Event location

Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Event type

conference

Event date

14-17 August 2018

ISBN

9783319976273

Series

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Department affiliated with

  • Informatics Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems Research Group Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-11-02

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-07-26

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-11-01

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