© Rolf Pfeifer

AMOUSE – Artificial Mouse

OverviewLeuven, 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

© Rolf Pfeifer

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

© Rolf Pfeifer

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

© Rolf Pfeifer

Realization

behavior of complete agent

integration of vision and whisker modality

model of somatosensory

processing

cortical recordings in rodents

construction of artificial whiskers

simulations

behavior in rodents and the robot

© Rolf Pfeifer

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

© Rolf Pfeifer

Realization - Electrophysiology

behavior of complete agent

integration of vision and whisker modality

model of somatosensory

processing

cortical recordings in rodents

construction of artificial whiskers

simulations

behavior in rodents and the robot

topologicalrepresentation

of whiskers

Arc

1Arc

1Row B

Row B

micro-electrode array for cortical

recordings

„barrels“ insomatosensory

cortex

© Rolf Pfeifer

Simulation

behavior of complete agent

integration of vision and whisker modality

model of somatosensory

processing

cortical recordings in rodents

construction of artificial whiskers

simulations

behavior in rodents and the robot

simulation of a single whisker using finite

element method

simulation of robot whisking texture

physics-based simulation

© Rolf Pfeifer

Behavior

behavior of complete agent

integration of vision and whisker modality

model of somatosensory

processing

cortical recordings in rodents

construction of artificial whiskers

simulations

behavior in rodents and the robot

8-arm maze for rodent and robot

rat looking into „arm“

possible scenario:

© Rolf Pfeifer

Artificial Whiskers

behavior of complete agent

integration of vision and whisker modality

model of somatosensory

processing

cortical recordings in rodents

construction of artificial whiskers

simulations

behavior in rodents and the robot

LED

mirror

photodiodes

whisker

opticsensor

acousticsensor

active array of acoustic sensors

magneticsensor