Small brains, smart computations: Vision and navigation in honeybees, and applications to robotics

Flying insects provide a clear demonstration that living organisms can display surprisingly competent mechanisms of guidance and navigation, despite possessing relatively small brains and simple nervous systems. Consequently, they are proving to be excellent organisms in which to investigate how visual information is exploited to guide locomotion and navigation. Three illustrative examples are described here, in the context of navigation to a destination. Bees negotiate narrow gaps by balancing the speeds of the images in the two eyes. The flight speed is regulated by holding constant the average image velocity as seen by the two eyes. Smooth landings on a horizontal surface are achieved by holding image velocity constant as the surface is approached, thus automatically ensuring that the flight speed is close to zero at touchdown. Tests of the feasibility of some of these navigational strategies, by implementation in robots, are described.