The following are some projects which are currently being pursued in the Higgins laboratory. Background information on many of them can be found by looking at laboratory publications.

Non-directional Speed Estimation Architecture (Vivek Pant)

We have implemented an analog VLSI speed estimating sensor based on two non-directional motion computing units: ND-S (summation) and ND-M (multiplication based correlation of transduced visual information). Both of these units have a spatio-temporally tuned output response that is roughly proportional to the visual speed of an object in the field of view of the sensor. The estimated speed from such a sensor may be used to create a depth-map of the visual world for an autonomously navigating robot.

ND sensor chip

Insect Robot Interfacing (Timothy Melano)

The field of neuroscience is moving toward understanding how sensory systems compute under closed-loop control. It is important to step away from open-loop experiments, i.e. where an animal cannot interact with its sensory inputs, because in the real world sensory neurons are passengers on a moving body whose sensory inputs are intimately related to its behavior. The challenge with performing these experiments under natural conditions is that conventional electrophysiology equipment is too bulky to be placed on a freely behaving animal. To solve this problem, we have designed a robotic electrophysiology instrument whose velocity is determined by bioelectrical signals from an animal, in our case the hawk moths and flies (model organisms for visual motion detection, olfaction, and insect flight). This robotic instrument allows us to perform electrophysiological experiments while a moth is onboard and controlling the robot, which, in engineering terms, closes the loop. With this instrument we will characterize visual motion detection neurons and investigate the use of these neurons as biosensors for robots.

Dipteran Elementary Motion Detection

In a collaborative project with the Strausfeld laboratory, we are developing and enhancing a novel computational neuronal model of elementary motion detection based on anatomical, physiological, and behavioral observations of flies. The neuronal substrate of elementary motion detection in insects has been under investigation for nearly 50 years, and our model serves as a working functional hypothesis as to how the underlying machinery may be organized.

This page updated on 1/19/07.