Robotics

We developed a (fly)brain-machine interface to study the robustness of different control-laws applied to a closed-loop image stabilization task. Taking advantage of the well-characterized fly visuomotor pathway we record the electrical activity from an identified, motion-sensitive neuron, H1, to control the yaw rotation of a two-wheeled robot.

An Experimental Platform to Study the Closed-loop Performance of Brain-machine Interfaces
An Experimental Platform to Study the Closed-loop Performance of Brain-machine Interfaces

We have since developed miniature amplifiers for electrophysiology which allow similar experiments to be performed with the fly mounted on the robot itself. We are using this mobile recording platform to investigate how neural processing in the fly’s visual system differs when the fly is moving compared with when it is stationary.

josephbot1

josephbot2
Wall following by a semi closed-loop fly-robot interface

Selected recent publications

Closed-loop control in an autonomous bio-hybrid robot system based on binocular neuronal input
Jiaqi V Huang, Holger G Krapp
Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems  (2015)

Closed-loop response properties of a visual interneuron involved in fly optomotor control
Naveed Ejaz, Holger G Krapp, Reiko J Tanaka
Frontiers in Neural Circuits  (2013)