Feature Extraction from a Static and a Moving One-Dimensional Voltage Sensor Line for the Electric Field-Based Determination of Object Size and Position in Aqueous Media

Biological beings perceive different signals from their environment through their sensory organs to estimate object size and position. In this work, the aspect of object localization and size is investigated in a detailed simulation study based on a simplified, analytical model of a weakly electric fish. These fishes generate a three-dimensional dipole-like electric field for object localization and communication. With the abstracted model of this bio-template, different features of a voltage profile that is obtained from an assumed sensor line (representing the voltage-sensitive skin of fish) were identified for the determination of object size and position. These features were categorized according to their suitability for measurement scenarios with a stationary or moving sensor line. On the one hand, some features are considered individually to obtain information about the object size and position, and on the other hand, a combination of these features create a distance measure which is independent of the object size.