Head roll stabilisation in the nocturnal bull ant <i>Myrmecia pyriformis</i>: Implications for visual navigation

Raderschall, Chloé A.; Narendra, Ajay; Zeil, Jochen

doi:10.1242/jeb.134049

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Using ZMs provides rotation invariance but is still vulnerable to factors that might cause the sky disc not to be centred. Specifically, in the insect (or robot) context, there might be additional variation in the image caused by pitch [59] and roll [60]. We have explored the use of spherical harmonics [74] to address this issue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This makes the task of finding the 'correct' minima more difficult, and more vulnerable to any factors that may distort the view or prevent regular, accurate alignment. Such factors include incomplete compensation for pitch [59] and roll [60] when moving over uneven terrain, as well as highly variable yaw relative to the direction of travel when dragging heavy food in a backwards motion [61]. Ants in this situation may use forward peeks [62], but neither peeks nor scans are observed as often as has been assumed in most simulated evaluations of this algorithm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rotation invariant visual processing for spatial memory in insects

et al. 2018

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Visual memory is crucial to navigation in many animals, including insects. Here, we focus on the problem of visual homing, that is, using comparison of the view at a current location with a view stored at the home location to control movement towards home by a novel shortcut. Insects show several visual specializations that appear advantageous for this task, including almost panoramic field of view and ultraviolet light sensitivity, which enhances the salience of the skyline. We discuss several proposals for subsequent processing of the image to obtain the required motion information, focusing on how each might deal with the problem of yaw rotation of the current view relative to the home view. Possible solutions include tagging of views with information from the celestial compass system, using multiple views pointing towards home, or rotation invariant encoding of the view. We illustrate briefly how a well-known shape description method from computer vision, Zernike moments, could provide a compact and rotation invariant representation of sky shapes to enhance visual homing. We discuss the biological plausibility of this solution, and also a fourth strategy, based on observed behaviour of insects, that involves transfer of information from visual memory matching to the compass system.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotation invariant visual processing for spatial memory in insects

et al. 2018

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“…For example, in complete darkness, the bull ant, Myrmecia pyriformis, is able to maintain a consistent head position using feedback from jointpositioned hairs, which monitor positions and forces on each ant limb to determine the direction of gravity. [210,211] There is little variability in the structure and ubiquity of tactile hairs between different insects, [212][213][214] and the hairs play an integral role in the survival of insects. This convergent mechanosensory system is therefore thought to be extensively refined by evolutionary selection pressures.…”

Section: Tactile Hairsmentioning

confidence: 99%

It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature: Functional Materials in Insects

2018

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Over the course of their wildly successful proliferation across the earth, the insects as a taxon have evolved enviable adaptations to their diverse habitats, which include adhesives, locomotor systems, hydrophobic surfaces, and sensors and actuators that transduce mechanical, acoustic, optical, thermal, and chemical signals. Insect‐inspired designs currently appear in a range of contexts, including antireflective coatings, optical displays, and computing algorithms. However, as over one million distinct and highly specialized species of insects have colonized nearly all habitable regions on the planet, they still provide a largely untapped pool of unique problem‐solving strategies. With the intent of providing materials scientists and engineers with a muse for the next generation of bioinspired materials, here, a selection of some of the most spectacular adaptations that insects have evolved is assembled and organized by function. The insects presented display dazzling optical properties as a result of natural photonic crystals, precise hierarchical patterns that span length scales from nanometers to millimeters, and formidable defense mechanisms that deploy an arsenal of chemical weaponry. Successful mimicry of these adaptations may facilitate technological solutions to as wide a range of problems as they solve in the insects that originated them.

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“…Ants derive compass information from a range of cues including the pattern of polarized skylight [1], the landmark panorama [2,3], odours [4] and magnetic fields [5]. Among these, visual orientation has been extensively studied because the visual navigational information can be quantified [6], relevant sensory systems can be characterized [7][8][9] and the visually driven behaviour can be monitored under natural conditions [6,10,11]. Most of our current knowledge about ant navigation has come from day-active ants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subtle changes in the landmark panorama disrupt visual navigation in a nocturnal bull ant

Narendra

Ramirez-Esquivel

2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The ability of ants to navigate when the visual landmark information is altered has often been tested by creating large and artificial discrepancies in their visual environment. Here, we had an opportunity to slightly modify the natural visual environment around the nest of the nocturnal bull ant We achieved this by felling three dead trees, two located along the typical route followed by the foragers of that particular nest and one in a direction perpendicular to their foraging direction. An image difference analysis showed that the change in the overall panorama following the removal of these trees was relatively little. We filmed the behaviour of ants close to the nest and tracked their entire paths, both before and after the trees were removed. We found that immediately after the trees were removed, ants walked slower and were less directed. Their foraging success decreased and they looked around more, including turning back to look towards the nest. We document how their behaviour changed over subsequent nights and discuss how the ants may detect and respond to a modified visual environment in the evening twilight period.This article is part of the themed issue 'Vision in dim light'.

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Head roll stabilisation in the nocturnal bull ant Myrmecia pyriformis: Implications for visual navigation

Cited by 22 publications

References 51 publications

Rotation invariant visual processing for spatial memory in insects

Rotation invariant visual processing for spatial memory in insects

It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature: Functional Materials in Insects

Subtle changes in the landmark panorama disrupt visual navigation in a nocturnal bull ant

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