{"id":28243,"date":"2020-01-09T22:01:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T02:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/?p=28243"},"modified":"2021-09-21T19:38:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T23:38:43","slug":"plos-computational-biology-learning-from-animals-how-to-navigate-complex-terrains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/plos-computational-biology-learning-from-animals-how-to-navigate-complex-terrains\/","title":{"rendered":"PLOS Computational Biology: Learning from Animals: How to Navigate Complex Terrains"},"content":{"rendered":"

PLOS Computational Biology<\/em> issued a press announcement<\/a> on a paper that it published today authored by Boston University CISE<\/a> Director Yannis Paschalidis (Professor ECE, SE, BME), PhD candidate Henghui Zhu (SE), former CISE post-doctoral associate Armin Ataei, former CISE visiting student scholar \u00a0Hao Liu (Zhejiang University), along with University of Washington\u00a0collaborators Professor Thomas Daniel (BIO, NEUROSCI) and\u00a0postdoctoral researcher Yonatan Munk (BIO).<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n
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An image of the experimental setup showing a moth attached to a metal rod in front of the virtual forest scene. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Daniel lab, University of Washington, Seattle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The paper, entitled Learning from Animals: How to Navigate Complex Terrains<\/em>, includes findings from the study of hawkmoths\u2019 flight data that could be applied to develop decision-making programs for autonomous vehicles.<\/p>\n

In the study, the researchers analyzed data from hawkmoth flight trajectories in a closed-loop virtual forest and extracted and adapted the navigation control policy for autonomous vehicles.\u00a0Among key findings, the study revealed that moths rely heavily on optical flow (the pattern of apparent motion of objects in a scene caused by the animal\u2019s movement) to navigate rather than explicitly observing the location of the various obstacles in the scene.\u00a0 The researchers also found that the navigation strategy of moths could be adapted to design control policies guiding the movement of drones in cluttered environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work opens the door to learning from animals and humans how to perform certain tasks using autonomous robots,\u201d says Prof. Paschalidis. \u201cThe study analysis could help synthesize novel navigation control strategies for autonomous vehicles operating in similar environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bio-inspired navigation is an area of focus for Boston University researchers as underscored by a multitude of research initiatives, including the recently won ONR MURI led by Prof. Paschalidis entitled: Neuro-Autonomy: Neuroscience-Inspired Perception, Navigation, and Spatial Awareness for Autonomous Robots<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read the article \u201cLearning from Animals: How to Navigate Complex Terrains\u201d in\u00a0PLOS Computational Biology<\/em> 16(1): e1007452 here:\u00a0doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1007452<\/a><\/p>\n

Read related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAerial Drones Get Schooled in Navigation<\/a>\u201c, The Brink<\/em>, by Kerry Benson<\/p>\n

\u201cMoths Teach Drones to Fly<\/a>\u201c, BU College of Engineering News<\/em>, Liz Sheeley<\/p>\n

\u201cFlight Data of Moths Used to Help Drones Fly Better<\/a>\u201c, Courthouse News, by Nathan Solis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PLOS Computational Biology issued a press announcement on a paper that it published today authored by Boston University CISE Director Yannis Paschalidis (Professor ECE, SE, BME), PhD candidate Henghui Zhu (SE), former CISE post-doctoral associate Armin Ataei, former CISE visiting student scholar \u00a0Hao Liu (Zhejiang University), along with University of Washington\u00a0collaborators Professor Thomas Daniel (BIO, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18605,"featured_media":33541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[76],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28243"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33542,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28243\/revisions\/33542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}