Bat boost for sonar research

A robotic bat head that can emit and detect ultrasound in the band of frequencies used by bats will give echolocation research a huge boost.

The Bat-Bot, developed by IST project CIRCE, can also wriggle its ears, a technique often used by bats to modulate the characteristics of the echo. CIRCE developed the Bat-Bot to closely mimic the echolocation skills of bats and to act as a tool for further research in echolocation.

"Sonar in water is a mature field, but sonar in air is far less advanced," says Dr Herbert Peremans, who is head of the Active Perception Lab the University of Antwerp and CIRCE co-ordinator.

"Whenever a robot team wants to build an autonomous robot they look at sonar first, but they quickly run into problems due to the simple nature of commercial sonar systems, and switch to vision or laser-ranging,” says Dr Peremans. “We hope that the research we can now do with the robotic bat will lead to more sophisticated sonar systems being used for robot navigation and other applications."