A new, large, flight cage was constructed on Barro Colorado Island, Panama so that the Greater Bulldog bat Noctilio leporinus could be flown. The existing flight cages were too small for this large bat. Permissions were sought as soon as the project had been approved, and the cage was largely finished by May 2008.

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More pictures later.

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.