From Insects to Robots and Back
Event details
| Date | 11.03.2019 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 16:00 |
| Speaker | Holger Krapp, Stéphane Viollet, Emily Baird, Pavan Ramdya |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
A thematic workshop at the intersection of biorobotics, neuroscience, computer vision, and behavioural science with 4 speakers in 2 hours
Flies and other autonomous systems. The benefits of interdisciplinary approaches to study sensorimotor control
Holger Krapp
Imperial College London
Abstract: Inspiration from biology to improve the performance of autonomous robotic systems is mostly associated with the translation of design principles of living systems into novel technical applications. But the joint venture between biological research and engineering also enables us to apply engineering methodologies to study functional mechanisms in biology. In my presentation I will review earlier work on biological matched filters for optic flow and its implementation of aerial robotic systems. I will also present two robotic platforms for studies on sensory systems that flies use to control their gaze and flight: (i) A fly(brain)-robotic interface (FRI) where the electrical activity of an identified motion-sensitive cell steers a 2-wheeled robot clear of collisions with the walls of an experimental arena; (ii) A robotized gonimetric recording setup that has been developed based on the parts of the FRI system that helps to further study general functional principles of biological optic flow processing. Finally, I will discuss sensorimotor control architectures that suggest how known locomotor activity helps to derive meaningful steering commands from ambiguous sensory signals.
Bio: Holger G Krapp is Professor of Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Bioengineeing at Imperial College London. He was awarded his Diploma in Biology and his PhD for work on the neuronal basis of optic flow processing in flies at the Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany. Afterwards he spent one year as a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Biology at Caltech, USA, studying neuronal circuits underlying collision avoidance in locust. He then returned to Germany working on insect vison at Bielefeld University for three years before accepting a lectureship at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2000. In 2005 he accepted a position at Imperial College London where he has expanded his research towards the understanding of biological design principles supporting sensorimotor control in insects with potential applications in autonomous robotic systems. He published >70 peer-reviewed papers and was invited to give > 100 conference and seminar talks, including public/keynote lectures. He is PLoS ONE academic editorial board member, assesses manuscripts for > 35 different scientific journals, grant proposals for ten UK/international funding agencies and was expert reviewer for the European Commission on an interdisciplinary robotics project.
From insect perception to robots and vice versa
Stéphane Viollet
Aix-Marseille University
Abstract: The Biorobotic approach is a meeting point where robotics and neuroscience are used to try to explain the behaviour of animals, especially winged insects (fly, bee, wasp...) and to model the processing of the sensory modalities at work in these outstanding animals. The neurophysiology is also used to better understand the sensorimotor reflexes at work in insects. The robots are a kind of embodiment of this insect-based knowledge to validate our models. Recent studies carried out at our laboratory focused on the graviception in fly, i.e., the ability of the animal to assess its orientation with respect to gravity, and on ant-inspired navigation strategies by means of a celestial compass. Would it be possible that a fly, able to achieve exquisite manoeuvres, could not have any clue of its body tilt with respect to gravity during flight? Could future robotic applications take a great benefit of the skylight polarization? Several bio-inspired visuals sensors, as well as bio-inspired robots, will be presented in this talk.
Bio: Stéphane Viollet is a CNRS research director at the Institute of Movement Sciences, Aix-Marseille Université and head of the Biorobotics team since 2008. He received the master’s degree in control engineering from the University of Bordeaux 1, France, and the Ph.D. degree from the National Polytechnic Institute, Grenoble, France, in September 2001 under the supervision of Dr. Nicolas Franceschini. He obtained a CNRS permanent position in 2003. His interests include sensory-motor reflexes in flies, retinal micro- movements and bio-inspired control strategies for aerial robots. He is the leader of the development of autonomous robots and innovative visual sensors for robotics (artificial compound eye, hyperacute sensors, and artificial retinas) and involved in several national and European projects on these topics. He is the author of more than 60 publications, 8 patents, and recipient of several best paper awards and nominations.
What does a bee see? Towards understanding the link between visual morphology and visual flight control
Emily Baird
Stockholm University
Abstract: Insects such as bees rely heavily on vision to control their flight. The visual information that they can use for this depends upon the morphology of the eyes, which varies significantly across insects, and even between closely-related individuals of the same species. To better understand the relationship between visual morphology and flight control behaviour in different insects, we have developed a method that uses a combination of X-ray micro-computed tomography and ray-tracing. Here, I will present some results from this approach and discuss how it may be useful to understand visual flight control strategies.
Bio: Emily Baird is an Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University. She did her PhD at the Australian National University with Mandyam Srinivasan and Shaowu Zhang before doing a brief postdoc with Martin Egelhaaf in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Bielefeld. She then moved to the Lund Vision group where she became an Assistant Professor before recently taking up a Senior Lecturer position at Stockholm University. Emily's research combines morphological analyses with behaviour to better understand how animals use visual information to guide them through their world.
Reverse-engineering Drosophila limb control circuits
Pavan Ramdya
EPFL, Brain-Mind Institute and Bioengineering Institute
Abstract: A shared goal of neuroscience and robotics is to understand how systems can be built to move effectively through the world. However, state-of-the-art algorithms for selecting and executing limbed behaviors in robots are still quite primitive compared with those used by animals. To inform robotic control approaches, we are investigating how the fly, Drosophila melanogaster, walks, grooms, and moves its limbs. I will discuss how we are combining 2-photon imaging of the ventral nerve cord in behaving Drosophila with physics-based simulations and neural network modeling to uncover how flies achieve flexible limb control.
Bio: Pavan Ramdya is interested in how animal behavior diversifies, evolves, and can be artificially engineered. He received his PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard University in 2009 and then performed Postdoctoral work at EPFL, UNIL, and Caltech in Robotics, Neurogenetics, and Integrative Neurobiology, respectively. His laboratory at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, is leveraging computational, engineering, and optical microscopy approaches to investigate how neural population dynamics, gene expression, and experience sculpt behavior in Drosophila melanogaster.
Flies and other autonomous systems. The benefits of interdisciplinary approaches to study sensorimotor control
Holger Krapp
Imperial College London
Abstract: Inspiration from biology to improve the performance of autonomous robotic systems is mostly associated with the translation of design principles of living systems into novel technical applications. But the joint venture between biological research and engineering also enables us to apply engineering methodologies to study functional mechanisms in biology. In my presentation I will review earlier work on biological matched filters for optic flow and its implementation of aerial robotic systems. I will also present two robotic platforms for studies on sensory systems that flies use to control their gaze and flight: (i) A fly(brain)-robotic interface (FRI) where the electrical activity of an identified motion-sensitive cell steers a 2-wheeled robot clear of collisions with the walls of an experimental arena; (ii) A robotized gonimetric recording setup that has been developed based on the parts of the FRI system that helps to further study general functional principles of biological optic flow processing. Finally, I will discuss sensorimotor control architectures that suggest how known locomotor activity helps to derive meaningful steering commands from ambiguous sensory signals.
Bio: Holger G Krapp is Professor of Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Bioengineeing at Imperial College London. He was awarded his Diploma in Biology and his PhD for work on the neuronal basis of optic flow processing in flies at the Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany. Afterwards he spent one year as a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Biology at Caltech, USA, studying neuronal circuits underlying collision avoidance in locust. He then returned to Germany working on insect vison at Bielefeld University for three years before accepting a lectureship at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2000. In 2005 he accepted a position at Imperial College London where he has expanded his research towards the understanding of biological design principles supporting sensorimotor control in insects with potential applications in autonomous robotic systems. He published >70 peer-reviewed papers and was invited to give > 100 conference and seminar talks, including public/keynote lectures. He is PLoS ONE academic editorial board member, assesses manuscripts for > 35 different scientific journals, grant proposals for ten UK/international funding agencies and was expert reviewer for the European Commission on an interdisciplinary robotics project.
From insect perception to robots and vice versa
Stéphane Viollet
Aix-Marseille University
Abstract: The Biorobotic approach is a meeting point where robotics and neuroscience are used to try to explain the behaviour of animals, especially winged insects (fly, bee, wasp...) and to model the processing of the sensory modalities at work in these outstanding animals. The neurophysiology is also used to better understand the sensorimotor reflexes at work in insects. The robots are a kind of embodiment of this insect-based knowledge to validate our models. Recent studies carried out at our laboratory focused on the graviception in fly, i.e., the ability of the animal to assess its orientation with respect to gravity, and on ant-inspired navigation strategies by means of a celestial compass. Would it be possible that a fly, able to achieve exquisite manoeuvres, could not have any clue of its body tilt with respect to gravity during flight? Could future robotic applications take a great benefit of the skylight polarization? Several bio-inspired visuals sensors, as well as bio-inspired robots, will be presented in this talk.
Bio: Stéphane Viollet is a CNRS research director at the Institute of Movement Sciences, Aix-Marseille Université and head of the Biorobotics team since 2008. He received the master’s degree in control engineering from the University of Bordeaux 1, France, and the Ph.D. degree from the National Polytechnic Institute, Grenoble, France, in September 2001 under the supervision of Dr. Nicolas Franceschini. He obtained a CNRS permanent position in 2003. His interests include sensory-motor reflexes in flies, retinal micro- movements and bio-inspired control strategies for aerial robots. He is the leader of the development of autonomous robots and innovative visual sensors for robotics (artificial compound eye, hyperacute sensors, and artificial retinas) and involved in several national and European projects on these topics. He is the author of more than 60 publications, 8 patents, and recipient of several best paper awards and nominations.
What does a bee see? Towards understanding the link between visual morphology and visual flight control
Emily Baird
Stockholm University
Abstract: Insects such as bees rely heavily on vision to control their flight. The visual information that they can use for this depends upon the morphology of the eyes, which varies significantly across insects, and even between closely-related individuals of the same species. To better understand the relationship between visual morphology and flight control behaviour in different insects, we have developed a method that uses a combination of X-ray micro-computed tomography and ray-tracing. Here, I will present some results from this approach and discuss how it may be useful to understand visual flight control strategies.
Bio: Emily Baird is an Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University. She did her PhD at the Australian National University with Mandyam Srinivasan and Shaowu Zhang before doing a brief postdoc with Martin Egelhaaf in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Bielefeld. She then moved to the Lund Vision group where she became an Assistant Professor before recently taking up a Senior Lecturer position at Stockholm University. Emily's research combines morphological analyses with behaviour to better understand how animals use visual information to guide them through their world.
Reverse-engineering Drosophila limb control circuits
Pavan Ramdya
EPFL, Brain-Mind Institute and Bioengineering Institute
Abstract: A shared goal of neuroscience and robotics is to understand how systems can be built to move effectively through the world. However, state-of-the-art algorithms for selecting and executing limbed behaviors in robots are still quite primitive compared with those used by animals. To inform robotic control approaches, we are investigating how the fly, Drosophila melanogaster, walks, grooms, and moves its limbs. I will discuss how we are combining 2-photon imaging of the ventral nerve cord in behaving Drosophila with physics-based simulations and neural network modeling to uncover how flies achieve flexible limb control.
Bio: Pavan Ramdya is interested in how animal behavior diversifies, evolves, and can be artificially engineered. He received his PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard University in 2009 and then performed Postdoctoral work at EPFL, UNIL, and Caltech in Robotics, Neurogenetics, and Integrative Neurobiology, respectively. His laboratory at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, is leveraging computational, engineering, and optical microscopy approaches to investigate how neural population dynamics, gene expression, and experience sculpt behavior in Drosophila melanogaster.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Dario Floreano, Laboratory of Intelligent Systems