Obstacle Avoidance and Boundary Following Behavior of the Echolocating Bat

Abstract

Developing a robust and rapid system for obstacle avoidance and boundary following has long been a goal of robotics research. The echolocating bat, Eptesicus fuscus, has evolved to navigate through complex environments in pursuit of evasive prey. Given its robust flight behavior, active sensing through sonar, small size, and low power consumption, E. fuscus has much potential as a source of inspiration for bio-inspired engineering, especially in the context of unmanned aerial vehicles. In this paper, we take steps toward such engineering by investi- gating the obstacle avoidance and boundary interaction behavior of E. fuscus. The bat's obstacle avoidance behavior is compared to the neurally-inspired open space algorithm, a winner-take-all based heading direction selection method. Boundary interaction by the bat is examined by testing a hypothesis: in following a boundary, the bat's flight path curvature is a time-delayed version of the boundary curvature. Initial results are promising; however, future work will include a more rigorous statistical analysis of observed behavior.