Spatial processing of visual information in the movement-detecting pathway of the fly

1. Spatial processing of visual signals in the fly's movement-detecting pathway was studied by recording the responses of directionally-selective movement-detecting (DSMD) neurons in the lobula plate. The summarized results pertain to a type of neuron which preferentially responds to horizontal movement directed toward the animal's midline. Three kinds of visual stimuli were used: moving gratings, reversing-contrast gratings and reversing-contrast bars.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47087/1/359_2004_Article_BF00613743.pd

Insect Inspired Visual Control of Translatory Flight

Flying insects use highly efficient visual strategies to control their self-motion in three-dimensional space. We present a biologically inspired, minimalistic model for visual flight control in an autonomous agent. Large, specialized receptive fields exploit the distribution of local intensities and local motion in an omnidirectional field of view, extracting the information required for attitude control, course stabilization, obstacle avoidance, and altitude control. In open-loop simulations, recordings from each control mechanism robustly indicate the sign of attitude angles, self rotation, obstacle dircetion and altitude deviation, respectively. Closed-loop experiments show that these signals are sufficient for three-dimensional flight stabilization with six degrees of freedom