Multimodal sensing for flight control and navigation in honeybees
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1
University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Australia
Flying insects are remarkably adept at seeing and perceiving the world and navigating effectively in it, despite possessing a brain that weighs less than a milligram and carries fewer than 0.01% as many neurons as ours does. This talk will present examples, some emerging from research our laboratory, to illustrate how honeybees use cues extracted from a variety of sensory organs to regulate and control various aspects of flight and navigation. As an insect flies in the environment, the image of the environment moves in its eyes. The pattern of image motion that is experienced by the eyes – the optic flow – contains information that is sensed by the nervous system and used to stabilize flight, control flight speed, measure distance flown, negotiate narrow gaps, avoid mid-air collisions with other insects, and orchestrate smooth landings. Stereo vision appears to be used additionally, during the final moments of landing, to control hover and touchdown. The position of the horizon is sensed by specialized organs – the Ocelli – to sense and control flight attitude. The dorsal regions of the compound eyes are used to sense the pattern of polarized light in the sky. This information is used to set and regulate the direction of flight. The olfactory sense provides powerful and complex associative cues that aid recall of a previously visited food source and expedite navigation to it. Wind is sensed and used to control the direction of approach during landing.
We are also using some of these principles to design, implement and test biologically inspired sensory systems for the guidance of autonomous aerial vehicles. Applications to maneuvers such as attitude stabilization, terrain following, obstacle avoidance, and automated aerobatics will be described.
Acknowledgements
The research was supported by the ARC Centre for Excellence in Vision Science, and a Queensland Premier's Fellowship.
Keywords:
flight,
insect,
navigation,
Olfaction,
Vision,
wind sensing
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Invited Symposium (only for people who have been invited to a particular symposium)
Topic:
Orientation and Navigation
Citation:
Srinivasan
M
(2012). Multimodal sensing for flight control and navigation in honeybees.
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00031
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Received:
27 Apr 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Mandyam Srinivasan, University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, St. Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia, M.Srinivasan@uq.edu.au