Skip to main content

Navigating with an adaptive light compass

  • 5. Robotics and Emulation of Animal Behavior
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Advances in Artificial Life (ECAL 1995)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 929))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

One of the fundamental abilities required in autonomous mobile agents is the one of homing. Natural agents like ants solve this problem by mainly using dead-reckoning mechanisms within an egocentric frame of reference. Here we present a biologically inspired orientation mechanism, an adaptive light compass, that was used for homing in ”Myrmix”, a mobile robot equipped with infrared and ambient light sensors. The control architecture is adaptive by using a self-organizing neural network. Herewith, the robot learns to associate signals coming from the light sensors with the corresponding motor actions. This approach is less computational than others, since apart from the length of the path travelled it is based on local rules. Preliminary results of experiments with this control architecture are reported and contrasted with a similar, but more computational, architecture introduced by [5].

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. V. Braitenberg. VEHICLES, Experiments in synthetic psychology. MIT-Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  2. M. L. Burger. Zum mechanismus der gegenwendung nach mechanisch aufgezwungener richtungsänderung bei schizophyllum sabulosum (julidae, diplopoda). Z. verg. Physiologie, 71:219–254, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  3. C. K. Hemelrijk and D. Lambrinos. Performance of two homing strategies in environments with differently distributed obstacles. In P. Gaussier and J. D. Nicoud, editors, From Perception to Action, Lausanne, 1994. IEEE Computer Society Press.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Teuvo Kohonen. Self-Organization and Associative Memory. Springer Series in Information Sciences. Springer Verlag, 3rd edition, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bredan McGonigle and Ulrich Nehmzow. Robot navigation by light. In J. A. Mayer and S. W. Wilson, editors, From animals to animats, Cambridge, 1990. MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  6. H. Mittelstaedt. Analytical cybernetics of spider navigation. In F.G. Barth, editor, Neurobiology of Arachnids, pages 298–316. Springer, Berlin, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  7. M. Müller and R. Wehner. Path integration in desert ants, cataglyphis fortis. In Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., number 85, pages 5287–5290, U.S.A. 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  8. R. Pfeifer and C. Scheier. From perception to action: The right direction? In P. Gaussier and J. D. Nicoud, editors, From Perception to Action, Lausanne, 1994. IEEE Computer Society Press.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Helge Ritter, Klaus Schulten, and Thomas Martinetz. Neural Computation and Self-Organizing Maps. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  10. S. Rossel and R.Wehner. The bee's e-vector compass. In R. Memzel and A. Mercier, editors, Neurobiology and Behaviour of Honeybees, pages 76–93. Springer, Berlin, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  11. R.Wehner. Animal Homing, chapter 3. Chapman and Hall, London, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  12. R. Wehner and F. Raeber. Visual spatial memory in desert ants cataglyphis bicolor. Experientia, 35, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Federico Morán Alvaro Moreno Juan Julián Merelo Pablo Chacón

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Lambrinos, D. (1995). Navigating with an adaptive light compass. In: Morán, F., Moreno, A., Merelo, J.J., Chacón, P. (eds) Advances in Artificial Life. ECAL 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 929. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-59496-5_329

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-59496-5_329

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-59496-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49286-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics