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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:On insects\, birds\, and drones
DTSTART:20220922T110000
DTEND:20220922T120000
DTSTAMP:20260408T140539Z
UID:23d7ea6966fe3a0d6069de7fa8332ac94c0a188c9d917ed9016151ff
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Graham Taylor\, Prof. Guido de Croon\nMini-workshop on 
 insects\, birds\, and drones\nThursday 22 Sept\, 11:00-12:00\, room MED 14
 18\n\nVisually guided morphing-wing flight in birds\nProf. Graham Taylor\,
  Oxford University\n\nBirds have been aptly described as “une aile guide
 ́e par un oeil”\, but this simple summary belies their underlying compl
 exity. Their wings are dynamic\, morphing structures\, supplemented by a m
 orphing tail\; their guidance is optimized through learning\; and their ey
 es are just one part of a multi-functional visual system used for tasks in
 cluding perching\, prey pursuit\, collision avoidance\, and gap negotiatio
 n. In this talk\, I will summarise what we have learned of these different
  aspects of bird flight by combining motion capture technologies\, inertia
 l measurement units\, and precision GPS/GNSS loggers with physics-based si
 mulation\, video rendering\, and machine learning. I will conclude by disc
 ussing prospects for future bio-inspired research on bird-like morphing-wi
 ng air vehicles.\n\nOn flying robots and insects: The tortuous story of op
 tical flow control\nProf. Guido de Croon\, Technical University Delft\n\nF
 lying insects are capable of feats that are currently beyond the reach of 
 flying robots. Tiny fruit flies are able to fly\, avoid obstacles\, naviga
 te\, find food or shelter\, learn\, and interact socially with one another
  – all with only ~100\,000 neurons. It may come as no surprise that robo
 tics researchers draw inspiration from nature to achieve autonomous flight
  of small drones. In particular\, monocular vision-based control has recei
 ved ample attention\, as a single camera can be light-weight and power-eff
 icient while providing rich information on the environment. It is well-kno
 wn that flying insects make ample use of the monocular visual cue of optic
 al flow\, which captures the relative motion between the eye and objects i
 n the environment. During my presentation\, I will tell the tortuous story
  of optical flow control\, starting with the biological finding that honey
 bees keep optical flow constant while descending – leading to soft landi
 ngs without relying on height measurements. I will talk about the intertwi
 ned successes and failures of such a landing strategy on flying robots\, a
 nd how robotics and biology can form a mutual inspiration for getting clos
 er to understanding insect intelligence and creating similarly intelligent
  flying robots.
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MED%200%201418
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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