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Insect brains inspire prize winning work


Insect brains might be small but they're inspiring robotics researchers (Image: iStockphoto)

An electrical engineer turned biologist, who now spends his time unravelling the workings of insect brains, has won one of Australia's top science prizes.

Professor Mandyam V Srinivasan of the Australian National University has won the Prime Minister's Prize for Science for work that has applications in the field of robotic vision, for example for autonomous aerial vehicles.

For over 20 years, Srinivasan has been designing experiments to work out what information honey bees use to take off, land on flowers swaying in the breeze, navigate the world without bumping into things, and find targets.

"If we can find out what the neural circuits underlying those things are, maybe we can build machines that are much more cognitive," he says.

Srinivasan says insect eyes are too close together to allow them to use stereovision to work out how far away objects are.

Instead he says they rely on measuring how fast objects are moving relative to their eye to work out how far away they are.

It is this relatively simple strategy, says Srinivasan, that can be reproduced in robotic vehicles.

So far, aspects of his work have been used to develop autonomous aircraft that can track terrain and keep level as they are flying.

The research has also helped develop wheeled robots that can navigate down narrow corridors, and a panoramic imaging and surveillance system which, like an insect eye, can capture almost the entire environment around it.

Angry bees

Srinivasan says that over the next five years he wants to shift his focus to studying how angry honeybees that are defending their hive rapidly track down moving targets to sting them.

"We find it a fascinating example of an exquisitely honed system to chase and intercept moving targets," he says.

He will use high-speed video cameras to track in 3D how angry bees approach and intercept their target.

Srinivasan hopes the information on bees' visual cues will help him develop an experiment in which one model aircraft can detect, track and intercept another.

About half of Srinivasan's funding comes from the Australian Research Council and half from military sources, including the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Other prizes

Another prize goes to CSIRO-based astronomer Dr Naomi McClure-Griffiths, who wins the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year.

McClure-Griffiths has been studying the shape of the Milky Way and has discovered a new spiral arm, changing many long-held ideas about the evolution of our galaxy.

The Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year goes to Dr James Whisstock of Monash University for his investigation of serpins, which control the break down of damaged cells by proteases.

Anna Davis of Casimir Catholic College in Sydney and Marjorie Colville of Perth Primary School near Launceston win prizes for excellence in science teaching.

Tags: biology, computers-and-technology