Title: | Automatic tracking of free-flying insects using a cable-driven robot |
Author(s): | Pannequin R; Jouaiti M; Boutayeb M; Lucas P; Martinez D; |
Address: | "Universite de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, 54000 Nancy, France. Universite de Lorraine, CNRS, LORIA, 54000 Nancy, France. Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences of Paris, INRAE, 78000 Versailles, France. Universite de Lorraine, CNRS, LORIA, 54000 Nancy, France. dominique.martinez@loria.fr" |
DOI: | 10.1126/scirobotics.abb2890 |
ISSN/ISBN: | 2470-9476 (Electronic) 2470-9476 (Linking) |
Abstract: | "Flying insects have evolved to develop efficient strategies to navigate in natural environments. Yet, studying them experimentally is difficult because of their small size and high speed of motion. Consequently, previous studies were limited to tethered flights, hovering flights, or restricted flights within confined laboratory chambers. Here, we report the development of a cable-driven parallel robot, named lab-on-cables, for tracking and interacting with a free-flying insect. In this approach, cameras are mounted on cables, so as to move automatically with the insect. We designed a reactive controller that minimizes the online tracking error between the position of the flying insect, provided by an embedded stereo-vision system, and the position of the moving lab, computed from the cable lengths. We validated the lab-on-cables with Agrotis ipsilon moths (ca. 2 centimeters long) flying freely up to 3 meters per second. We further demonstrated, using prerecorded trajectories, the possibility to track other insects such as fruit flies or mosquitoes. The lab-on-cables is relevant to free-flight studies and may be used in combination with stimulus delivery to assess sensory modulation of flight behavior (e.g., pheromone-controlled anemotaxis in moths)" |
Keywords: | "Animals Biomechanical Phenomena Equipment Design Flight, Animal/*physiology Imaging, Three-Dimensional Insecta/*physiology Models, Biological Moths/physiology Pheromones/physiology Robotics/*instrumentation/statistics & numerical data Virtual Reality;" |
Notes: | "MedlinePannequin, Remi Jouaiti, Melanie Boutayeb, Mohamed Lucas, Philippe Martinez, Dominique eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Validation Study 2020/10/07 Sci Robot. 2020 Jun 10; 5(43):eabb2890. doi: 10.1126/scirobotics.abb2890" |