Animal-like robots are playing an increasingly important role as a link between the worlds of biology and engineering. The new, multidisciplinary field of biorobotics provides tools for biologists studying animal behavior and testbeds for the study and evaluation of biological algorithms for potential engineering applications. This book focuses on the role of robots as tools for biologists.An animal is profoundly affected by the many subtle and complex signals within its environment, and because the animal invariably disturbs its environment, it constantly creates a new set of stimuli. Biorobots are now enabling biologists to understand these complex animal-environment relationships. This book unites scientists from diverse disciplines who are using biorobots to probe animal behavior and brain function. The first section describes the sensory systems of biorobotic crickets, lobsters, and ants and the visual system of flies. The second section discusses robots with cockroach motor systems and the intriguing question of how the evolution of complex motor abilities could lead to the development of cognitive functions. The final section discusses higher brain function and neural modeling in mammalian and humanoid robots.
Using biorobotics to explore animal behavior and brain function.
Introduction vii Thomas R. Consi Barbara Webb Sensory Systems A Spiking Neuron Controller for Robot Phonotaxis 3(18) Barbara Webb Environmental Information, Animal Behavior, and Biorobot Design: Reflections on Locating Chemical Sources in Marine Environments 21(16) Frank W. Grasso Insect Strategies of Visual Homing in Mobile Robots 37(30) Ralf Moller Dimitrios Lambrinos Thorsten Roggendorf Rolf Pfeifer Rudiger Wehner Aerial Minirobot that Stabilizes and Tracks with a Bio-Inspired Visual Scanning Sensor 67(20) Stephane Viollet Nicolas Franceschini Motor Systems Construction of a Hexapod Robot with Cockroach Kinematics Benefits both Robotics and Biology 87(20) Roger D. Quinn Roy E. Ritzmann Build Robots with a Complex Motor System to Understand Cognition 107(16) Holk Cruse Cognitive Systems Perceptual Invariance and Categorization in an Embodied Model of the Visual System 123(22) Nikolaus Almassy Olaf Sporns Investigating Models of Social Development using a Humanoid Robot 145(24) Brian Scassellati Epilog 169(6) Barbara Webb Thomas R. Consi Bibliography 175(22) Index 197
Barbara Webb builds robotic crickets and is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Stirling, UK. Thomas R. Consi is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Ocean Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
