BIOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE FOUNDATIONS OF INTELLIGENT SENSOR FUSION

Sensor fusion is being increasingly viewed as an important perceptual activity in mobile robotics. While the potential benefits of sensor fu sion have motivated much research, no general purpose method for accom plishing sensor fusion has emerged. This paper reviews the literature from the biological and cognitive sciences in sensory integration and derives principles for use in constructing intelligent sensor fusion s ystems, In particular, it presents psychophysical and neurophysical st udies on how sensor fusion is accomplished and cognitive models of ass ociated activities, including optimization of sensing configurations, improvement of sensing quality, and filtering of noise. The Sensor Fus ion Effects (SFX) architecture for robot navigation is also presented as one example of how these insights from the biological and computer science can be applied to robotic sensor fusion. Experimental results demonstrates the utility of the biological and cognitive insights, esp ecially that of fusion modes. Other representative architectures for r obotic sensor fusion are contrasted with the biological and cognitive principles.