Queensland Brain Institute and Institute of Electrical and Electronic

Engineering University of Queensland

and ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science

Mandyam Srinivasan

Vision and navigation in bees and birds and applications to robotics

Sam Baker, Daniel Bland, Natalie Bland, Nikolai Liebsch, Richard Moore, Gavin Taylor, Saul Thurrowgood, Dean Soccol

Peculiarities of insect vision

Small interocular separation

Therefore, stereo vision is difficult

Insects rely heavily on image motion cues to infer object distance, perceive the world in 3-D and navigate in it

Dr. Miriam Lehrer University of Zürich

Kirchner & Srinivasan Naturwissenschaften (1988)

Srinivasan, Lehrer, Kirchner & Zhang Vis. Neurosci. (1991)

Bees negotiate narrow gaps by balancing the image velocities in the two eyes

Centering response in budgerigars P. Bhagavatula, C. Claudianos, M. Ibbotson, M.V. Srinivasan Current Biology (2011)

N.S.

Visual control of flight speed - bees

~300 deg/sec

Baird, Srinivasan, Zhang and Cowley, J Exp Biol (2005)

Speed of flight is regulated by holding the global image velocity constant

Control of flight speed

Srinivasan, Zhang, Lehrer & Collett J. Exp. Biol. (1996)

0

0.1

0.2

0.4

0.3

0.5

Battling headwind

Barron and Srinivasan, J. Exp. Biol. (2006)

0 40 80 120 160

0.9 m/s 1.6 m/s 2.8 m/s 3.8 m/s

Ground speed m/s

Volts

Headwind speed

Headwind

Landing

How does a bee perform a smooth, grazing landing ?

h

(height above surface)

(Forward speed)

(Descent speed) V d

V f !=Tan-1"

V f

V d

!"(Descent angle)

Landing parameters

Horizontal flight speed versus height

Srinivasan, Zhang, Chahl, Barth & Venkatesh, Biol. Cybern (2000)

Landing on a vertical surface

With Emily Baird, Norbert Boeddeker, Michael Ibbotson

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700-300

-200

-100

0

100

200

300

400

Time (t), msec

Posi

tion

(Z),

mm

S61

Z=-273.48+519.7*exp(-0.0028*t)

Stat 6 arms

11 flights

Distance decreases exponentially as a function of time, suggesting that approach speed is controlled by holding rate of image expansion constant

Honeybee landing

Baird, Boeddeker, Ibbotson, Srinivasan: PNAS (in press)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200-250

-200

-150

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

250Expanding 1 rpsContracting 1rpsStatic

Posi

tion

(Z),

mm

Time (t), msec

Test of hypothesis: Expanding spiral reduces approach speed; contracting spiral increases it

Baird, Boeddeker, Ibbotson, Srinivasan: PNAS (in press)

200 deg/sec

Constant approach speed

Baird, Boeddeker, Ibbotson, Srinivasan: PNAS (in press)

The waggle dance

Honeybee odometry

Wag

gle

dura

tion

(sec

)

Q: How does a bee work out how far she has flown?

Karl von Frisch

Round dance

(feeder distance < 50m)

Waggle dance

(feeder distance > 50m)

Honeybee navigation: How does a bee estimate how far it has flown?

6 m

Feeder

6 m

Feeder

Hive

Hive

Feeder Hive

6 m

Dance signal

~ 0 m

~ 200 m

Round dance

Waggle dance

Round dance ~ 0 m

Srinivasan, Zhang, Altwein & Tautz, Science (2000) Esch, Zhang, Srinivasan & Tautz Nature (2001)

1 msec of waggle corresponds to 18o of image movement in the eye during flight

18o

Visual calibration of the honeybee’s odometer and dance

Srinivasan, Zhang, Altwein & Tautz, Science (2000)

Scouts returning from 8 m tunnel signal a distance of 140 m

Recruits search at 140 m

8 m

How do the recruits respond to the dancing tunnel bees?

Esch, Zhang, Srinivasan & Tautz Nature (2001)

Image courtesy Jeff Wilson and Judith Reinhard

Honeybee perception and ‘cognition’

Maze learning

Maze navigation: following a colour mark

Music in the wind

Bev Doolittle

Rewarded Unrewarded 49.0% 51.0%

63.1% 36.9%

61.2% 38.8%

(n=1099, P > 0.50

(n=141, P < 0.005)

(n=509, P < 0.001) 62.6% 37.4%

(n=238, P < 0.001)

“Top-down” processing in honeybees

Zhang & Srinivasan Nature (1994)

Associative recall

2m

Rose-scented feeder

Hive

21 individually marked bees

Lemon-scented feeder

Training paradigm

Can scent trigger memories of locations?

Reinhard, Srinivasan and Zhang, Nature (2004)

2m

Former “rose” feeder

Former “lemon” feeder

rose scent

4

41 40

5

Hive

21 individually marked bees

lemon scent

Test

Can scent trigger memories of locations?

Reinhard, Srinivasan and Zhang, Nature (2004)