Developmental Schedule — Motor Maturation
The creature follows a biologically inspired developmental trajectory from neonatal motor babbling to mature locomotion. Each stage unlocks new capabilities based on competence thresholds.
Development Stages
- Motor Babbling — Random leg movements, no coordination. Provides initial training signal for proprioception and body schema. Biology: fidgety movements in neonates (Prechtl 1997).
- Reflexive — Spinal reflexes (righting, extension) dominate. The creature can recover from falls but cannot walk.
- CPG Emergence — Central pattern generator begins producing rhythmic patterns. Amplitude starts low (30%) and increases with maturation.
- CPG + Corrections — Cerebellum starts providing balance corrections on top of CPG. Competence gate manages the blend.
- SNN Takeover — SNN actor competence rises, CPG weight fades from 80% to 20%. The creature transitions from innate to learned locomotion.
Competence Gate
motor = CPG × cpg_weight + SNN × (1 - cpg_weight) cpg_weight fades: 0.8 → 0.2 over 200,000 steps Actor competence measured by sustained forward velocity without falls
References
- Prechtl (1997). State of the art of a new functional assessment. Early Human Development
- Thelen (1995). Motor development: A new synthesis. American Psychologist
API Reference
DevelopmentalSchedule(config: DevelopmentalConfig)
get_stage(step_count, competence) → str
Current developmental stage based on step count and measured competence.
get_cpg_weight(step_count) → float
CPG weight in motor blend for current developmental stage.
DevelopmentalConfig
babbling_steps: 1000 cpg_onset: 2000 cpg_maturation: 5000 fade_steps: 200000