One of the first whiskered robot prototypes to be designed and
built as part of the project
Researchers at England’s University of Sheffield, Germany’s Bernstein
Centre for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) and the
Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin – along with others – are using the
animal kingdom to help develop sophisticated touch technology for use
in intelligent machines, such as robots.
The
new 7.3 million euro ‘BIOTACT’ project brings together nine research
groups from seven countries – including Israel and the US – to develop
innovative artificial touch technologies, including a “whiskered”
robotic rat.
This new technology could have a number of possible
applications in modern-day society from search and rescue robots that
could pick their way through rubble and debris to mine-clearing
machines to planetary rovers in space.
The technology could
also be used closer to home in domestic products; for example vacuum
cleaners that could sense textures for optimal cleaning.
While
vision supplies information about distant objects, touch is invaluable
in sensing the nearby environment. However, in designing intelligent,
life-like machines, the use of touch has been largely overlooked, until
now.
Led by Professor Tony Prescott of Sheffield’s Department of
Psychology, the international team will develop new technologies
inspired by the use of touch in the animal kingdom.
In
nocturnal creatures, or those that inhabit poorly-lit places, this
physical sense is widely preferred to vision as a primary means of
discovering the world.
The Norwegian rat and the Etruscan shrew,
for example, use their whiskers to make sense of their environment. The
mammals sweep their whiskers back and forth at high speeds in a
controlled manner, allowing them to use touch signals alone to
recognise familiar items, determine the shape and surface of objects,
and track and capture prey.
The research team at the BCCN – led
by Professor Michael Brecht of the Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin – will
focus on the Etruscan shrew, the smallest mammal.
This animal
hunts prey of almost the same size as itself. Guided by vibrissal
touch, this animal places breath-takingly fast and precise attacks on
its insect prey.
An example of what the final ‘robot rat’ will look like, that can
seek-out, identify and track fast-moving target objects
“The sensory-motor performance of this animal is astonishing. Using
novel microscopy techniques will offer unique insights about the
mammalian brain function,” Brecht says.
Using their
understanding of the animal kingdom, the team will develop two machines
endowed with similar sensing capabilities, including a whiskered robot
that can seek-out, identify and track fast-moving target objects.
“Overall,
our project will bring about a step-change in the understanding of
active touch sensing and in the use of whisker-like sensors in
intelligent machines,” Prescott said.
“Today’s life-like
machines, such as robots, don’t make effective use of touch. By
learning from nature and developing technologies that do use this
physical sense, our researchers will be able to enhance the
capabilities of the machines of the future.”
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