Abstract
To assess the responses of an identified optic-flow processing interneuron in the fly motion-vision pathway, the H1-cell, we performed semi-closed-loop experiments using a bio-hybrid two-wheeled robotic platform. We implemented a feedback-control architecture that established ‘wall following’ behaviour of the robot based on the H1-cell’s spike rate. The analysis of neuronal data suggests the spiking activity of the cell depends on both the momentary turning radius of the robot as well as the distance of the fly’s eyes from the walls of the experimental arena. A phenomenological model that takes into account the robot’s turning radius predicts spike rates that are in agreement with our experimental data. Consequently, measuring the turning radius using on-board sensors will enable us to extract distance information from H1-cell signals to further improve collision avoidance performance of our fly-robotic interface.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Caroline Golden for improving the proofreading the manuscript. This work was partially supported by US AFOSR/EOARD grant FA8655-09-1-3083 to HGK.
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Huang, J.V., Wang, Y., Krapp, H.G. (2016). Wall Following in a Semi-closed-loop Fly-Robotic Interface. In: Lepora, N., Mura, A., Mangan, M., Verschure, P., Desmulliez, M., Prescott, T. (eds) Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems. Living Machines 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9793. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42417-0_9
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