Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Whisker-Based Texture Discrimination on a Mobile Robot

  • Conference paper
Advances in Artificial Life (ECAL 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3630))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Sensing in the dark is a useful but challenging task both for biological agents and robots. Rats and mice use whiskers for the active exploration of their environment. We have built a robot equipped with two active whisker arrays and tested whether they can provide reliable texture information. While it is relatively easy to classify data recorded at a specified distance and angle to the object, it is more challenging to achieve texture discrimination on a mobile robot. We used a standard neural network classifier to show that it is in principle possible to discriminate textures using whisker sensors even under real-world conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. The Mathworks - Documentation on the Neural Network Toolbox

    Google Scholar 

  2. Arabzadeh, E., Panzeri, S., Diamond, M.E.: Whisker vibration information carried by rat barrel cortex neurons. Journal of Neuroscience 24(26), 6011–6020 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Arabzadeh, E., Petersen, R.S., Diamond, M.E.: Encoding of whisker vibration by rat barrel cortex neurons: implications for texture discrimination. Journal of Neuroscience 23(27), 9146–9154 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Brecht, M., Preilowski, B., Merzenich, M.M.: Functional architecture of the mystacial vibrissae. Behavioral Brain Research 84(1-2), 81–97 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Carvell, G.E., Simons, D.J.: Biometric analyses of vibrissal tactile discrimination in the rat. Journal of Neuroscience 10(8), 2638–2648 (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Carvell, G.E., Simons, D.J.: Task- and subject-related differences in sensorimotor behavior during active touch. Somatosensory and motor research 12(1), 1–9 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Diamond, M.: Personal communication (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Fend, M., Bovet, S., Hafner, V.V.: The artificial mouse - a robot with whiskers and vision. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics, Paris (2004) (on CD)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fend, M., Bovet, S., Yokoi, H., Pfeifer, R.: An active artificial whisker array for texture discrimination. In: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Fend, M., Yokoi, H., Pfeifer, R.: Optimal morphology of a biologically-inspired whisker array on an obstacle-avoiding robot. In: Banzhaf, W., Christaller, T., Dittrich, P., Kim, J.T., Ziegler, J. (eds.) ECAL 2003. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2801, Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Guic-Robles, E., Valdivieso, C., Guajardo, G.: Rats can learn a roughness discrimination using only their vibrissal system. Behavioural Brain Research 31(3), 285–289 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Hafner, V.V., Fend, M., König, P., Körding, K.P.: Predicting properties of the rat somatosensory system by sparse coding. Neural Information Processing Letters and Reviews 4(1), 11–18 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hafner, V.V., Fend, M., Lungarella, M., Pfeifer, R., König, P., Körding, K.P.: Optimal coding for naturally occurring whisker deflections. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Neural Information Processing (ICONIP), Istanbul (June 2003)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Hipp, J.: Personal communication (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kim, D., Moeller, R.: A biomimetic whisker for texture discrimination and distance estimation. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB), pp. 140–149 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Lungarella, M., Hafner, V.V., Pfeifer, R., Yokoi, H.: An artificial whisker sensor for robotics. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 2931–2936 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Metha, S.B., Kleinfeld, D.: Frisking the whiskers: Patterned sensory input in the rat vibrissa system. Neuron 41, 181–184 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Moore, C.I.: Frequency-dependent processing in the vibrissa sensory system. J. of Neurophysiology 91, 2390–2399 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Russell, R.A., Wijaya, J.A.: Object location and recognition using whisker sensors. In: Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Seth, A., McKinstry, J.L., Edelman, G.M., Krichmar, J.L.: Spatiotemporal processing of whisker input supports texture discrimination by a brain-based device. In: Schaal, S., Ijspeert, A., Billard, A., Vijajamumar, S., Hallam, J., Meyer, J.-A. (eds.) Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB), pp. 130–139. MIT Press, Cambridge (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Shi, J., Tomasi, C.: Good features to track. In: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 1994), June 1994, pp. 593–600 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Wijaya, J.A., Andrew Russell, R.: Object exploration using whisker sensors. In: Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (2002)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich, Andreasstrasse 15, 8050, Zurich, Switzerland

    Miriam Fend

Authors
  1. Miriam Fend
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Computation Group, University of Kent, CT2 7NF, Canterbury, UK

    Mathieu S. Capcarrère

  2. Computing Laboratory and Centre for BioMedical Informatics, University of Kent, CT2 7NF, Canterbury, UK

    Alex A. Freitas

  3. Computer Science Department, University College London, London, UK

    Peter J. Bentley

  4. Computing Laboratory, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Colin G. Johnson

  5. Department of Electronics, University of York, YO10 5DD, Heslington, York, UK

    Jon Timmis

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Fend, M. (2005). Whisker-Based Texture Discrimination on a Mobile Robot. In: Capcarrère, M.S., Freitas, A.A., Bentley, P.J., Johnson, C.G., Timmis, J. (eds) Advances in Artificial Life. ECAL 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3630. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11553090_31

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11553090_31

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28848-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31816-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation