Fly Brain Codex
An experimental controller for a native macOS robot-arm simulator, built using a derived MaleCNS connectome. MaleCNS is an anatomical wiring map, not a pretrained robot policy. This release includes our learned parameters, derived sparse graph assets, frozen training features/targets, and historical evaluation records.
Source, setup and demo · Simulator branch
Choose a profile
| Artifact | What it contains | Measured status |
|---|---|---|
stable.tar.gz |
Retained retain-grasp-20260911 UI controller |
19/20 pickup-and-hold trials in X343–357, Y−10–8 mm; separate real UI pickup/hold/drop checks passed |
experimental.tar.gz |
Newer touch-direct-20260912, using bilateral finger contact to select pickup/holding parameter banks |
12/15 full tasks completed; 20 planned, 5 unrun. Not qualified for default UI deployment |
cuda-continuation.tar.gz |
Latest 12,000-iteration RTX 4090 continuation fit, parameters and fit metrics | Not imported into the deployed controller; no native closed-loop evaluation |
runtime-assets.tar.gz |
Shared prepared graph, sensory/motor/feedback circuits and brain-overlay geometry | Shared once by both profiles |
“Stable” identifies the retained UI baseline, not production-grade reliability. The validated task uses a 20 mm cube and a folded start. Broad arbitrary placement and other cube sizes are not established. Historical results do not guarantee the same rate on another machine.
Run
Clone the source repository, follow its macOS simulator build instructions, then run:
python3 scripts/download_model.py
.venv/bin/python scripts/run_mlx_ui.py --check-deployment
The downloader pins this Hub release by commit and SHA-256 in the source repository, verifies the archives, preserves differing existing assets, and writes only project-local data/ and a local runtime configuration. No Hub login is needed for a public download. --profile experimental downloads the research controller without activating it.
training-bundle.tar.gz additionally contains the compact, versioned frozen-feature continuation experiment and its matching trainer; see the source repository training guide. It does not contain the full historical RGB dataset.
What controls the arm
Front and wrist-mounted RGB renders are converted to luminance and mapped to annotated retinal neurons. Joint, aperture and contact feedback drive an engineered sensory encoding. A fixed persistent sensory graph runs on MLX/Metal; a constrained learned motor head runs on CPU and produces six joint targets plus gripper aperture at a nominal 2 Hz. Cube coordinates and inverse kinematics are used by teachers/evaluation, not by the actor's action selection.
Training uses demonstration supervision and task-space objectives, with PyTorch MPS/CUDA optimization of selected existing signed connections and response offsets. It is not a validated biological learning simulation. A fixed dopamine multiplier in offline training is not demonstrated reward-driven fly learning. The touch-bank selector is engineered.
After a qualifying hold (at least 100 mm clearance, at most 5° tilt for five seconds), a scripted completion routine opens the gripper and verifies the floor landing. Release is not a learned neural action. RealityKit, native actuators, floor limiting, camera projection, and the fly-to-robot mapping are engineered components.
Reuse and provenance
Numerical arrays in the packaged checkpoints are byte-identical to their tested source versions. JSON provenance paths were normalized; relocation.json records before/after hashes. The installer preserves original historical evidence and rebases checkpoint addresses and metadata hashes in separate local copies. This is relocation verification, not a new simulator or hardware qualification. Backend parity was measured on Apple M2 Max with MLX 0.32.2.
The bundles contain frozen features/targets, not the entire historical RGB observation corpus. Raw MaleCNS download tables are not duplicated here. Download/rebuild commands and research scripts live in the source repository.
Attribution and license
Derived assets and published model artifacts: CC BY 4.0. Source code: MIT in the GitHub repository. MaleCNS work is by FlyEM at HHMI Janelia, University of Cambridge, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Google Research, and collaborators. Preserve the bundled ATTRIBUTION.md files.
Source: MaleCNS downloads and attribution. This independent experiment is not an official MaleCNS, Google, Janelia, Orbbec, or ReBot release, and does not establish biological fidelity or physical-robot safety.
Publication metadata is portable: local account paths and machine names are removed, and archive ownership fields are anonymized. Numerical arrays are unchanged.