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Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems

Living Machines 2015: Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems pp 231–242Cite as

Integration of Biological Neural Models for the Control of Eye Movements in a Robotic Head

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9222))

Abstract

We developed a biologically plausible control algorithm to move the eyes of a six degrees of freedom robotic head in a human-like manner. Our neurocontroller, written with the neural simulator Nengo, integrates different biological neural models of eye movements, such as microsaccades, saccades, vestibular-ocular reflex, smooth pursuit and vergence. The coordination of the movements depends on the stream of sensory information acquired by two silicon retinas used as eyes and by an inertial measurement unit, which serves as a vestibular system. The eye movements generated by our neurocontroller resemble those of humans when exposed to the same visual input. This robotic platform can be used to investigate the most efficient exploration strategies used to extract salient features from either a static or dynamic visual scene. Future research should focus on technical enhancements and model refinements of the system.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscientific System Theory Group Department of Electric and Computer Engineering, Technische Universität München, Karlstrasse 45, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Marcello Mulas, Manxiu Zhan & Jörg Conradt

Authors
  1. Marcello Mulas
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  2. Manxiu Zhan
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  3. Jörg Conradt
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Marcello Mulas or Jörg Conradt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Stuart P. Wilson

  2. Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

    Paul F.M.J. Verschure

  3. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

    Anna Mura

  4. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Tony J. Prescott

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Mulas, M., Zhan, M., Conradt, J. (2015). Integration of Biological Neural Models for the Control of Eye Movements in a Robotic Head. In: Wilson, S., Verschure, P., Mura, A., Prescott, T. (eds) Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems. Living Machines 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9222. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22979-9_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22979-9_24

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22978-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22979-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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