Am 05.07.2016 trägt Prof. Dr. Volker Dürr (Universität Bilefeldt) im Rahmen des IBU/DFN-Kolloquiums zum Thema
"Active tactile sensing in insects and insect-inspired robots"
vor.
Abstract: Many insect species use a pair of antennae (feelers) for tactile exploration of the near-range environment. As such, they may serve as paragons for the study of touch sensing in particular, and for the study of active sensing in the continuous interaction between animals and their environment in general. Owing to the physical contact of the sensory organ with the environment, tactile exploration is an interesting and equally challenging topic for biomimetic engineering, too. This talk will introduce the key properties of the insect sense of active touch, including some examples of touch-mediated behaviours such as goal-directed reaching. After that, the recent discovery of a population of descending interneurons will be emphasized. These neurons are part of the neural pathway that informs motor networks about mechanical events at the antenna.
Finally, selected computational approaches will be discussed, that abstract key properties of the biological system and may lend themselves to implementation in biomimetic active touch systems.