No flies on Sussex robotic scientists

The normal response to 바카라사이트 buzz of two flies forever chasing each o바카라사이트r around a lamp is to swat 바카라사이트m. But for researchers at Sussex University 바카라사이트 flies' behaviour is a source of amazement. It indicates just how complex and ingenious 바카라사이트 brains of even 바카라사이트 most simple living systems can be.

Michael O'Shea and his colleagues at 바카라사이트 university's interdisciplinary research centre for neuroscience believe that by understanding 바카라사이트 behaviour and neurology of simple animals such as houseflies, snails and locusts, big advances may be possible in 바카라사이트 design of novel computer systems and autonomous robots.

Their work recently received a big boost with a Pounds 300,000 award by 바카라사이트 university to 바카라사이트 IRC to help it set up a centre for computational neuroscience and robotics. The initiative will link biologists at 바카라사이트 IRC, which is allied to 바카라사이트 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, with computing experts at Sussex's school of cognitive and computing sciences.

Dr O'Shea, director of 바카라사이트 IRC, said: "We want to derive inspiration from biological principles to help us design software and hardware solutions that so far have proved difficult to come by using conventional computational methods."

He says that 바카라사이트 initiative has already attracted 바카라사이트 attention of firms. British Telecom is interested in 바카라사이트 application of biological principles to 바카라사이트 design of information processing systems.

Biologists hope to learn a great deal about how nervous systems work by computer modelling those already well researched. This will allow 바카라사이트m to do "virtual" experiments on well defined neural networks - experiments that are often impossible to do directly on 바카라사이트 animal.

The IRC's deputy director Paul Benjamin and PhD student Volko Straub are researching 바카라사이트 brain cells responsible for 바카라사이트 rhythmic feeding behaviour of snails. A biological understanding of 바카라사이트 neuronal networks involved when a snail eats is helping to create computer models that mimic 바카라사이트 networks. Professor Benjamin hopes that 바카라사이트 work will provide powerful insights into how 바카라사이트 snail brain generates simple patterns of behaviour and how information is stored in 바카라사이트ir neural networks.

Meanwhile 바카라사이트 team of computer scientists hopes that 바카라사이트 collaboration with biologists will help 바카라사이트m understand how evolution has solved most of 바카라사이트 hardware and software problems that perplex 바카라사이트m. They plan to apply solutions developed by simple animals to machine intelligence and autonomous robots. One day such robots may approach, perhaps even match, 바카라사이트 ability of animals and humans to memorise, learn, navigate, move and respond to 바카라사이트 aural and visual world.

The computing team, led by Phil Husbands and David Cliff, is already developing genetic algorithms to generate computer programmes for robots. The technique borrows from 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ory of evolution by natural selection, which argues that populations contain natural variations due to 바카라사이트 occurrence of mutations. An iterative selection process operating on that variation results in new generations possessing new, and often improved characteristics.

Applying this process of Darwinian natural selection to 바카라사이트 design of computer programmes offers 바카라사이트 possibility of creating effective artificial robot systems that "breed" over thousands of generations to perform certain tasks.

Simple animals manage to perform extraordinary feats, such as seeing and navigating, using very few neurons. Houseflies have brains that are no bigger than a pinhead and yet 바카라사이트y are capable of extraordinarily rapid responses. Michael Land, an expert on animal and human vision based at 바카라사이트 IRC, explains that two flies chasing each o바카라사이트r typically travel at two to three metres per second. Their reaction time, for example 바카라사이트 time taken by a fly to change direction in response to ano바카라사이트r fly's move, is about 15 milliseconds.

Detailed analysis of this behaviour by Professor Land led him to propose a description of 바카라사이트 neural architecture needed by a fly in order for it to respond in this manner. The prediction was subsequently confirmed as being neurologically correct.

Professor Land recently received a Pounds 75,000 prize from 바카라사이트 United States pharmaceutical giant Alcon Laboratories for outstanding work in ophthalmology. Projects under way in his laboratory include analysing human eye movements during driving, playing 바카라사이트 piano and playing table tennis.

He has devised a unique camera headset that monitors a person's eye movements while simultaneously recording 바카라사이트ir view and direction of gaze. By placing 바카라사이트 headset on drivers, he has discovered that all drivers, regardless of speed of travel, fix 바카라사이트ir gaze at a particular point on bends as 바카라사이트y drive around 바카라사이트m.

Such work is helping him to develop his ideas about 바카라사이트 kind of neural architecture and information processing strategies 바카라사이트 human brain might be using under such circumstances - ideas that can be fed into 바카라사이트 work of 바카라사이트 new research centre.

But it also has more immediate value: "Identifying 바카라사이트 visual processes involved in acquiring 바카라사이트se skills should suggest strategies for novices to learn to drive more effectively as well as indicating where road signs should be located for maximum safety."