A mobile robot employing insect strategies for navigation

Lambrinos, Dimitrios; Möller, Ralf; Labhart, Thomas; Pfeifer, Rolf; Wehner, Rüdiger

doi:10.1016/s0921-8890(99)00064-0

Cited by 442 publications

(372 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In the ALV model, for example, f would produce the two components of the average landmark vector (Lambrinos et al 2000); in the contour model, it would amount to a computation of contour length and contour eccentricity (Möller 2001); in the Fourier-amplitude model, f would deliver the first few Fourier amplitudes for each image row (Menegatti et al 2004). …”

Section: Descent In Distance Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parameter methods have been suggested as a possible explanation for peculiar observations in experiments with desert ants (Möller 2001) and bees (Möller 2000). A special instance of parameter models is the average landmark vector (ALV) model (Lambrinos et al 2000), where the parameter vector comprises the two components of the average of unit vectors pointing to selected landmark features. While usually in parameter methods the distance measure or "potential" can be computed but the home vector has to be estimated by sampling the potential at multiple locations in space, the ALV method directly provides a home vector (it is equal to the difference between the two average landmark vectors), whereas the potential cannot be computed because it depends on the unknown distances to the landmarks (Möller 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Local visual homing by matched-filter descent in image distances

Möller

Vardy

2006

Biol Cybern

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In natural images, the distance measure between two images taken at different locations rises smoothly with increasing distance between the locations. This fact can be exploited for local visual homing where the task is to reach a goal location that is characterized by a snapshot image: descending in the image distance will lead the agent to the goal location. To compute an estimate of the spatial gradient in the distance measure, its value must be sampled at three noncollinear points. An animal or robot would have to insert exploratory movements into its home trajectory to collect these samples. Here we suggest a method based on the matched-filter concept that allows one to estimate the gradient without exploratory movements. Two matched filters -optical flow fields resulting from translatory movements in the horizontal plane -are used to predict two images in perpendicular directions from the current location. We investigate the relation to differential flow methods applied to the local homing problem and show that the matched-filter approach produces reliable homing behavior on image databases. Two alternative methods that only require a single matched filter are suggested. The matched-filter concept is also applied to derive a home-vector equation for a Fourier-based parameter method.

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Section: Descent In Distance Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local visual homing by matched-filter descent in image distances

Möller

Vardy

2006

Biol Cybern

Self Cite

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“…Tests were performed in the early morning and the average angular error was of 0.66 • using the simultaneous model, and 1.73 • using the simple scanning model. The simultaneous model was then applied to Sahabot 2 in order to implement ant inspired path integration models [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel insect-inspired optical compass sensor for a hexapod walking robot

Dupeyroux¹,

Diperi²,

Boyron³

et al. 2017

2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

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Abstract-In an outdoor autonomous navigational context, classic compass sensors such as magnetometers have to deal with unpredictable magnetic disturbances. In this paper, we propose to get inspiration from the insect navigational abilities to design a celestial compass based on linear polarization of ultraviolet (UV) skylight. To compute the solar meridian relative orientation, our 3D-printed celestial compass uses only two pixels created by two UV-light photo-sensors topped with linear polarizers arranged orthogonally to each other, in the same manner that was observed in insects' Dorsal Rim Area ommatidia. The compass was then embedded on our hexapod walking robot called Hexabot. We first tested the UV-polarized light compass to compensate for yaw random disturbances. We then used the compass to maintain Hexabot's heading direction constant in a straight-forward task, knowing the robot has important yaw drifts. Experiments under various meteorological conditions provided steady state heading direction errors from 0.3 • under clear sky conditions to 1.9 • under overcast sky, which suggests interesting precision and reliability to make this optical compass suitable for robotics.

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“…15– 27 . However, the specific field experimental paradigm related to skylight compass orientation leads to different kinds of information where an optimal, easy-to-handle tool and database has not yet been established.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant-App-DB: a smart solution for monitoring arthropods activities, experimental data management and solar calculations without GPS in behavioral field studies

et al. 2015

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Field studies on arthropod ecology and behaviour require simple and robust monitoring tools, preferably with direct access to an integrated database. We have developed and here present a database tool allowing smart-phone based monitoring of arthropods. This smart phone application provides an easy solution to collect, manage and process the data in the field which has been a very difficult task for field biologists using traditional methods. To monitor our example species, the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis, we considered behavior, nest search runs, feeding habits and path segmentations including detailed information on solar position and Azimuth calculation, ant orientation and time of day. For this we established a user friendly database system integrating the Ant-App-DB with a smart phone and tablet application, combining experimental data manipulation with data management and providing solar position and timing estimations without any GPS or GIS system. Moreover, the new desktop application Dataplus allows efficient data extraction and conversion from smart phone application to personal computers, for further ecological data analysis and sharing. All features, software code and database as well as Dataplus application are made available completely free of charge and sufficiently generic to be easily adapted to other field monitoring studies on arthropods or other migratory organisms. The software applications Ant-App-DB and Dataplus described here are developed using the Android SDK, Java, XML, C# and SQLite Database.

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A mobile robot employing insect strategies for navigation

Cited by 442 publications

References 51 publications

Local visual homing by matched-filter descent in image distances

Local visual homing by matched-filter descent in image distances

A novel insect-inspired optical compass sensor for a hexapod walking robot

Ant-App-DB: a smart solution for monitoring arthropods activities, experimental data management and solar calculations without GPS in behavioral field studies

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