Insect visual homing strategies in a robot with analog processing

The visual homing abilities of insects can be explained by the snapshot hyp othesis. It asserts that an animal is guided to a previously visited locati on by comparing the current view with a snapshot taken at that location. Th e average landmark vector (ALV) model is a parsimonious navigation model ba sed on the snapshot hypothesis. According to this model, the target locatio n is unambiguously characterized by a signature vector extracted from the s napshot image. This article provides threefold support for the ALV model by synthetic modeling. First, it was shown that a mobile robot using the ALV model returns to the target location with only small position errors. Secon d, the behavior of the robot resembled the behavior of bees in some experim ents. And third, the ALV model was implemented on the robot in analog hardw are. This adds validity to the ALV model, since analog electronic circuits share a number of information-processing principles with biological nervous systems; the analog implementation therefore provides suggestions for how visual homing abilities might be implemented in the insect's brain.