Bee inspired breakthrough in the development of autonomous robots

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have created a computer model mimicking how bees avoid hitting walls. This they expect will pave way for breakthrough in the development of autonomous robots.

The researchers add “We are interested in how bees are capable of navigating complex environments. Experimental evidence shows that they use an estimate of the speed that patterns move across their compound eyes (angular velocity) to control their behaviour and avoid obstacles; however the brain circuitry used to extract this information is not understood. We have created a model that uses a small number of assumptions to demonstrate a plausible set of circuitry. Since bees only extract an estimate of angular velocity they show differences from the expected behaviour for perfect angular velocity detection, and our model reproduces these differences.”

Details appear in the latest issue of journal PLOS Computational Biology