View source for Bio-Inspired Visuomotor Convergence in Navigation and Flight Control Systems

{{HTDB paper
| authors = J. Sean Humbert
| title = Bio-Inspired Visuomotor Convergence in Navigation and Flight Control Systems 
| source = PhD Dissertation, Control and Dynamical Systems
| year = 
| type = PhD Dissertation
| funding = ARO/ICB
| url = http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~murray/preprints/jsh05-phd.pdf
| abstract = 
Insects exhibit incredibly robust closed loop flight dynamics in the face of uncertainties. 
A fundamental principle contributing to this unparalleled behavior is rapid processing and 
convergence of visual sensory information to flight motor commands via spatial wide-field 
integration, accomplished by retinal motion pattern sensitive interneurons (LPTCs) in the 
lobula plate portion of the visual ganglia. Within a control-theoretic framework, an inner 
product model for wide-field integration of retinal image flow is developed, representing the 
spatial decompositions performed by LPTCs in the insect visuomotor system. A rigorous 
characterization of the information available from this visuomotor convergence technique 
for motion within environments exhibiting non-omogeneous spatial distributions is performed, establishing the connection between retinal motion sensitivity shape and closed 
loop behavior. The proposed output feedback methodology is shown to be sufficient to give 
rise to experimentally observed insect navigational heuristics, including forward speed regulation, obstacle avoidance, hovering, and terrain following behaviors. Hence, extraction of 
global retinal motion cues through computationally efficient wide-field integration process- 
ing provides a novel and promising methodology for utilizing visual sensory information in 
autonomous robotic navigation and flight control applications.
| flags = 
| tag = jsh05-phd
| id = 2005
}}