Lecture Topics

•    the universal role of sensory-motor control systems: example
•    from theoretical approaches (cybernetics) to simple systems
•    the ecological approach – flowfields
•    human perception-action on the road: control of headin
•    playing cricket – driving: sensory-motor control to the extreme
•    applications: bio-robotics & neuromorphic engineering

go to lecture 4 (Sensory Systems I)

Summary

•    the sensory system interacts with the physical world to maximise information yield >> affects information collected
•    control theory helps to analyse and understand: cybernetics
•    everyday examples demonstrate the universality and scope of sensory-motor control >> relation to Gibson’s ecological approach
•    simple biological systems highlight fundamental control mechanisms
•    two examples to illustrate how the processing limits are pushed in neural systems: driving, playing cricket
•    technical applications: biorobotics & neuro-morphic engineering

Further Reading:

•  Blondeau, J, Heisenberg, M 1982 "The three-dimensional optomotor torque system of Drosophila melanogaster" Journal of Comparative Physiology 145, 321-329
•  Braitenberg, V. (1984) ‘Vehicles - Experiments in Synthetic Psychology’ MIT Press, Cambridge, (152 BRA)
•  Brooks, R 2000 "From robot dreams to reality" Nature 406, 945-946
•  Bruce, V, Green PR & Georgeson, M (1996) Visual Perception: Physiology, Psychology and Ecology (3rd ed.) Hove: Psychology Press, (152.14 BRU)
•  Craelius, W 2002 “The Bionic Man: Restoring Mobility” Science 295; 1018-1021
•  Gibson, E J, Walk, R D 1960 "The "Visual Cliff"" Scientific American 202, 64-71
•  Gibson, J J, 1979 The ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
•  Götz, K G, Wenking, H 1973 "Visual Control of Locomotion in the Walking Fruitfly Drosophila" Journal of Comparative Physiology 85, 235-266
•  Hogg, D W, Martin, F, Resnick, M 1991 "Braitenberg Creatures" MIT Epistemology and Learning Memo 13, 1-10
•  Houk, J.C. & Lehman, S. (1987) 'Control Systems: Feedback, Feedforward, and Adaptive Strategies' in: Encyclopedia of neuroscience, edited by George Adelman. Boston : Birkhäuser (612.803 ENC)
•  Kurzweil, R 1999 "The coming merging of mind and machine" Sci.Am. Special Issue 1999
•  Lambrinos, D, Möller, R, Labhart, T, Pfeifer, R, Wehner, R 2000 "A mobile robot employing insect strategies for navigation" Robotics and Autonomous Systems 30, 39-64
•  Land, M F. 2001 "Does Steering a Car Involve Perception of the Velocity Flow Field" In J.M.Zanker & J.Zeil (Eds.), Motion Vision - Computational, Neural, and Ecological Constraints. (pp. 227-235). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.
•  Land, M F, Lee, D N 1994 "Where we look when we steer" Nature 369, 742-744
•  Land, M F, McLeod, P (2000) "From eye movements to actions: how batsmen hit the ball" Nature Neuroscience 3, 1340-1345
•  Land MF, Mennie N, Rusted J (1999) Eye movements and the roles of vision in activities of daily living: making a cup of tea. Perception 28, 1311-1328;
•  Lappe, M, Bremmer, F, Van den Berg, A V 1999 "Perception of self-motion from visual flow" Trends in Cognitive Sciences 3, 329-335
•  Redlick, F P, Jenkin, M, Harris, L R 2001 "Humans can use optic flow to estimate distance of travel" Vision Research 41, 213-219
•  Regan, D (1992) "Visual judgements and misjudgements in cricket, and the art of flight" Perception 21, 91-115
•  Regan, D, Gray, R (2000) "Visually guided collision avoidance and collision achievement" Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4, 99-107
•  Reichardt, W 1986 "Processing of optical information by the visual system of the fly" Vision Research 26, 113-126
•  Rushton, SK, Harris, JM, Lloyd, MR, Wann, JP 1998 "Guidance of locomotion on foot uses perceived target location rather than optic flow" Current Biology, 8:1191-1194.
•  Srinivasan, M V 1992 "How bees exploit optic flow: behavioural experiments and neural models" Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 337, 253-259
•  Srinivasan, M V, Chahl, J S, Weber, K, Venkatesh, S, Nagle, M G, Zhang, S W 1999 "Robot navigation inspired by principles of insect vision" Robotics and Autonomous Systems 26, 203-216
• Waterman, T. H. (1989) Animal Navigation. Freeman & Co., New York
• Warwick, K 2002 "I, Cyborg", Century; ISBN: 0712669884
• Webb, B 2001 "Can robots make good models of biological behaviour?" Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24, 1033-1050
• Wessberg, J, Stambaugh, C R, Kralik, J D, Beck, P D, Laubach, M, Chapin, J K, Kim, J, Biggs, S J, Srinivasan, M A, Nicolelis, M A L 2000 "Real-time prediction of hand traje

textbooks

•  Zanker, J.M. (2010) Sensation, Perception, Action - an evolutionary perspective. Palgrave
•  Bruce, V, Green PR & Georgeson, M (1996) Visual Perception: Physiology, Psychology and Ecology (3rd ed.) Hove: Psychology Press, (152.14 BRU)

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last update 5-10-2010
Johannes M. Zanker