We selected four species which exhibit either gleaning or trawling behaviour. Both types face rather similar sensorial tasks: they have to detect, localize and capture prey from surfaces. However, the complexity of the tasks differs, ranging from a highly cluttered, three-dimensional environment (vegetation) to a simpler, mostly two-dimensional background (water surface) which can be simulated using a mobile robot platform. Furthermore, the four species are characterized by striking differences in morphology of features that are associated with sound emission and reception, in particular nose, ear and face. The decision to work with four species of bat represents a compromise between practicality and scientific and engineering knowledge gained.

Micronycteris microtis has a simple face which functions as a `baseline model' for the morphological part of the project. It also has amazing discriminatory abilities, hovering to find stationary insects amongst the high clutter of vegetation. This bat forms the basis of our gleaning model.
[ Data collected so far for Micronycteris microtis. ]

Either Myotis daubentonii or Noctilio leporinus will form the prototype for the trawling bat model. Both are essential to the project for practical reasons --- the convenient availability of the European Myotis daubentonii allows testing of the visual shape acquisition methods using only `local' travel, while only Noctilio leporinus is large and strong enough to carry the telemike recording equipment needed to validate the acoustic simulation methods for reconstructing emitted bat calls.
[ Data collected so far for Myotis daubentonii. ]
[ Data collected so far for Noctilio leporinus. ]

The fourth species, Macrophyllum macrophyllum, is closely related to the gleaner Micronycteris microtis yet is itself a trawling bat. It thus provides a bridge between the gleaning and trawling bat models.
[ Data collected so far for Macrophyllum macrophyllum. ]

From a scientific point of view, the chosen bats offer a number of significant inter-species comparisons to help elucidate the interaction of morphology, acoustic behaviour and motor behaviour in the hunting task. The three trawling bat species have quite different morphological adaptations and echolocation calls, which we expect will help identify the key interactions to be modelled and will also help maintain generality of the engineering knowledge gained.

Note that two models are to be constructed, one for Micronycteris microtis, the only bat proven able to find motionless food in dense acoustic clutter; and one for a selected trawling bat --- Myotis daubentonii, Noctilio leporinus or (possibly) Macrophyllum macrophyllum. These models are constructed in parallel, by the two engineering teams. There is considerable common ground since the teams use the same acoustic tools, the same standard models of early auditory processing, and share the same system integration tools for the two platforms. We expect that, despite the very different tasks being modelled, each will to a considerable extent inform the modelling of the other and the common engineering goal of building robust versatile active perception systems; hence the shared workpackage structure.

The choice of Myotis daubentonii or Noctilio leporinus as the principal prototype species for the trawling bat model will depend on the outcome of the acoustic and shape data capture work described in the work plan.

A presentation of the main points of the project.

2002-2005: CIRCE (Chiroptera Inspired Robotic CEphaloid; IST-2001-35144) which reproduced, at a functional level, the echolocation system of bats by constructing a bionic bat head that was used to systematically investigate how the world is not just perceived but actively explored by bats. This bionic bat head is of similar size to a real bat head to reproduce the relevant physics and consist of an emission/reception system capable of generating/processing bat vocalisations in real-time, a multi-degree of freedom mechanical system to allow realistic pinnae movement.

2005-2010: CILIA (Customized Intelligent Life-inspired Arrays; IST-2005-016039), about sensory systems based on arrays of hairs. The project aims to identify the common principles underlying the widespread use in nature of arrays of mechanical sensory cells for the extraction of meaning under adverse conditions and to make those principles available for design of engineered systems.