Visual navigation in insects and robots by Barbara Webb, Professor of Biorobotics, University of Edinburgh. She will give a keynote talk at 11th Vision Researchers Colloquium, 8 July, led by Bristol Vision Institute, in partnership with the GW4 Alliance. 

Abstract:

Many insects have excellent navigational skills, covering distances, conditions and terrains that are still a challenge for robotics. The primary sense they use is vision, both to obtain self-motion information for path integration, and to establish visual memories of their surroundings to guide homing and route following. Insect vision is relatively low resolution, but exploits a combination of sensory tuning and behavioural strategies to solve complex problems. For example, by filtering for ultraviolet light in an omnidirectional view, segmentation of the shape of the horizon between sky and ground becomes both simple and highly consistent. 

They have shown this approach can be used on a robot to reliably recognise location, even under different weather conditions or variations in pitch and tilt. Insects may use a specific behavioural strategy in navigation of aligning themselves to views they have stored when facing or following a route to a goal. They have investigated, using computational modelling and robot implementations, how the small brain of an insect might support the rapid learning of hundreds of images along a route. Their modelling approach has made it possible to link insights from field experiments to neural data, and thus derive and test novel hypotheses about visual navigation in insects.

For further info, please visit the following links.

https://www.edinburgh-robotics.org/academics/barbara-webb