Insect inspired vision-based velocity estimation through spatial pooling of optic flow during linear motion

Insects rely on the perception of image motion, or optic flow, to estimate their velocity relative
to nearby objects. This information provides important sensory input for avoiding obstacles.
However, certain behaviors, such as estimating the absolute distance to a landing target, accurately
measuring absolute distance traveled, and estimating the ambient wind speed require decoupling optic
flow into its component parts: absolute ground velocity and distance to nearby objects. Behavioral
experiments suggest that insects perform these calculations, but their mechanism for doing so
remains unknown. Here we present a novel algorithm that combines the geometry of dynamic forward
motion with known features of insect visual processing to provide a hypothesis for how insects might
directly estimate absolute ground velocity from a combination of optic flow and acceleration
information. Our robotics-inspired-biology approach reveals three critical requirements. First,
absolute gro...

Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - September 8, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Bryson Lingenfelter, Arunava Nag and Floris van Breugel Source Type: research