A NEW ALGORITHM FOR NAVIGATION BY SKYLIGHT BASED ON INSECT VISION

F. J. Smith

2008

Abstract

Many insects can navigate accurately using the polarised light from the sky when the sun is obscured. They navigate using two different types of optical features: one is a set of three ocelli on the top of the head and the second is a celestial compass based on several photoreceptors on the dorsal rims of the compound eyes. Either feature can be used alone, but the dorsal rim receptors appear to be more accurate. Robots have been built that navigate using three photoreceptors, or three pairs of orthogonally oriented photoreceptors, but none has been designed which uses a full set of photoreceptors similar to those in the dorsal rim. A new model of the function of the dorsal rim compass is proposed which relies on the four azimuths at which the polarization angle χ = ±π/4. A simulation shows that this could provide an accurate navigational tool for a robot (or insect) in lightly clouded skies.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

J. Smith F. (2008). A NEW ALGORITHM FOR NAVIGATION BY SKYLIGHT BASED ON INSECT VISION . In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing - Volume 2: BIOSIGNALS, (BIOSTEC 2008) ISBN 978-989-8111-18-0, pages 185-190. DOI: 10.5220/0001068901850190

in Bibtex Style

@conference{biosignals08,
author={F. J. Smith},
title={A NEW ALGORITHM FOR NAVIGATION BY SKYLIGHT BASED ON INSECT VISION},
booktitle={Proceedings of the First International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing - Volume 2: BIOSIGNALS, (BIOSTEC 2008)},
year={2008},
pages={185-190},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0001068901850190},
isbn={978-989-8111-18-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the First International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing - Volume 2: BIOSIGNALS, (BIOSTEC 2008)
TI - A NEW ALGORITHM FOR NAVIGATION BY SKYLIGHT BASED ON INSECT VISION
SN - 978-989-8111-18-0
AU - J. Smith F.
PY - 2008
SP - 185
EP - 190
DO - 10.5220/0001068901850190