A biorobotic approach to modelling celestial cue integration in ball-rolling dung beetles

该项目旨在探索生物学上可信的计算模型，这些模型可以解释屎甲虫保持直立姿态的机制，并参考多个天空信号作为指南针参考。最初的方法集中在产生一个准确的计算机模拟的屎甲虫背眼视图，当呈现不同的光模式时，假设甲虫眼睛的结构和即时光学通路控制着观察到的物种之间的线索整合和线索偏好差异。这一预处理将被用来产生一个可信的编码，该编码可以作为中央复合体模型的输入；中央复合体模型是中央复合体神经结构的模型，被认为是甲虫大脑的定向中心。虽然计算模型是我们的目标，但我的目标是在arobot平台上实现任何结果模型，以提供真实天窗条件下的性能数据。这个问题源于伦德大学对南非滚球屎甲虫进行的行为生物学研究；具体地说，就是它们在将粪便从粪堆中滚开时的定向行为。滚动粪便甲虫将粪便用于一些目的，特别是作为食物来源。因此，对这一宝贵资源的竞争非常激烈。一旦一只甲虫形成了它的粪球，它就会选择一个方向，然后沿着一条直线滚动这个球，以便迅速地最大化它与粪堆的距离。屎甲虫(像人类一样)需要一些外部参考来保持它们的举止。越来越多的证据表明，使用的参照物是天空。2003年，Byrne等人首次展示了金龟子使用太阳作为方向提示，但此后又显示出使用各种天体信号来保持它们的直线方向，包括：月亮/太阳的位置、非天体的颜色光谱、月亮/太阳光透过大气层所引起的光偏振模式，甚至是天空中的银河系(从它们的自然栖息地可以看到)。目前，我们了解到，现有的线索是以某种方式组合在一起的，不同物种之间存在着对不同线索的内在偏好；然而，从生物学上讲，没有一个可信的计算模型来充分描述所有观察到的行为；这个项目旨在开发和探索这样的模型。

This project aims to explore biologically plausible computational models whichmay explain the mechanisms by which dung beetles can maintain a straight bearingwith reference to multiple sky cues as a compass reference. The initial approachis centred on producing an accurate computer simulation of the dung beetle dorsaleye view when presented with different patterns of light with the hypothesis thatthe structure of the beetle eye and immediate optical pathway governs the cueintegration and cue preference differences observed between species. Thispreprocessing will be used to generate a plausible encoding which can be used asinput to the Central Complex model; a model of the Central Complex neuralstructure, thought to be the orientation centre of the beetle brain. While acomputational model is the goal, I aim to implement any resultant model on arobot platform to provide performance data under real skylight conditions.The question arises from studies in behavioural biology conducted at LundUniversity regarding South African ball-rolling dung beetles; specifically, theirorientation behaviour when rolling dung away from the dung pile. Ball-rollingdung beetles use dung for a few purposes, notably as a food source.There is therefore serious competition over the valuable resource. Once a beetlehas formed its ball of dung it picks a direction and rolls the ball away in astraight line to quickly maximise its distance from the dung pile.Dung beetles (like humans) need some external reference to maintain theirbearing. Mounting evidence shows that the reference in use is the sky. Dungbeetles were first shown to use the sun as a directional prompt by Byrne et al.in 2003 but have since been shown to use a variety of celestial cues to maintaintheir straight-line orientation, including: the position of the Moon/Sun, acelestial colour spectrum, the pattern of light polarisation caused by Moon/Sunlight filtering through the atmosphere, and even the the Milky Way galaxy in thesky (visible from their natural habitat). Currently, we understand that theavailable cues are combined in some way and that there is some inherentpreference for different cues between different species; however, there is nobiologically plausible computational model which adequately describes all of theobserved behaviours; this project aims to develop and explore such models.