Insect vision to inform direction of robot research

In a paper published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface, researchers describe how the learnings from both insects and humans can be applied in a model virtual reality simulation, enabling an artificial intelligence system to ‘pursue’ an object.

“Detecting and tracking small objects against complex backgrounds is a highly challenging task,” said Zahra Bagheri, mechanical engineering PhD student and lead author of the paper.

“Consider a cricket or baseball player trying to take a match-winning catch in the outfield. They have seconds or less to spot the ball, track it and predict its path as it comes down against the brightly coloured backdrop of excited fans in the crowd - all while running or even diving towards the point where they predict it will fall!

“Robotics engineers still dream of providing robots with the combination of sharp eyes, quick reflexes and flexible muscles that allow a budding champion to master this skill,” she said in a statement.