Understanding the inner workings of an insect's brain can help us in our search towards energy-efficient computing, physicist Elisabetta Chicca of the University of Groningen demonstrates with her most recent result: a robot that acts like an insect.
Moving in curves makes the problem too complex for insects. To keep things manageable for their limited brainpower, they adjust their behaviour: they fly in a straight line, make a turn, then make another straight line. Chicca explains: 'What we learn from this is: if you don't have enough resources, you can simplify the problem with your behaviour.'
In search of the neural mechanism that drives insect behaviour, PhD student Thorben Schoepe developed a model of its neuronal activity and a small robot that uses this model to navigate. All this was done under Chicca's supervision, and in close collaboration with neurobiologist Martin Egelhaaf of Bielefeld University, who helped to identify the insects' computational principles.
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