AMOUSE

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AMOUSE Artificial Mouse
Overview Leuven, 3 December 2002 Review Meeting
Andreas K. Engel, GFA Jülich Rolf Pfeifer, Uni
Zürich Mathew Diamond, SISSA Trieste Peter König,
ETH Zürich Ralf Möller, MPI München
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Goals of AMOUSE project

• parallel investigation of artificial and natural
  system
• explanation of natural behavior
• creation of living artifacts
• complete agent approach
• specificially
• interaction of profoundly morphologically
  different sensory systems (visual and whisker
  system)
• efficient use of multi-modal input
• cross-modal integration, learning, and
  generalization
• temperal synchronization

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Background whisker systems

• in nature
• comparable to finger tips
• motion detection of distant objects
• navigation in the dark
• rich shape and texture information
• neural processing
• model system for somatosensory processing

• in robotics
• so far
• limited (binary, strain sensors,bending angles)
• new biologically inspired
• temporal high-frequency information
• collision and motion detection
• texture discrimination
• ? cheap and efficient sensors

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Realization
cortical recordings in rodents
behavior of complete agent integration of vision
and whisker modality model of somatosensory
processing
simulations
construction of artificial whiskers
behavior in rodents and the robot
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Expected impact

• new understanding
• interplay of morphology and materials of sensory
  and motor systems and neural processing
• multi-modal sensory integration
• exploitation for behavior of complete agent
• processing in somatosensory system
• adaptive behavior in general
• new technology
• sensory modality for robotic applications
• adaptivity through multi-modal neural integration
• living artifacts
• new tools
• synthetic methodology
• testbed for controlled experimentation

NMOUSE
AMOUSE
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Realization - Electrophysiology
topological representation of whiskers
cortical recordings in rodents
behavior of complete agent integration of vision
and whisker modality model of somatosensory
processing
simulations
barrels in somatosensory cortex
micro-electrode array for cortical recordings
construction of artificial whiskers
behavior in rodents and the robot
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Simulation
physics-based simulation
simulation of a single whisker using finite
element method
cortical recordings in rodents
behavior of complete agent integration of vision
and whisker modality model of somatosensory
processing
simulations
simulation of robot whisking texture
construction of artificial whiskers
behavior in rodents and the robot
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Behavior
cortical recordings in rodents
possible scenario
8-arm maze for rodent and robot
behavior of complete agent integration of vision
and whisker modality model of somatosensory
processing
simulations
rat looking into arm
construction of artificial whiskers
behavior in rodents and the robot
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Artificial Whiskers
cortical recordings in rodents
whisker
behavior of complete agent integration of vision
and whisker modality model of somatosensory
processing
simulations
LED
mirror
photodiodes
acoustic sensor
magnetic sensor
optic sensor
active array of acoustic sensors
construction of artificial whiskers
behavior in rodents and the robot