A robotic system emulating the adaptive orienting behavior of the barn owl

Autonomous robotic systems need to adjust their sensorimotor coordinations so as to maintain good performance in the presence of changes in their sensory and motor characteristics. Biological systems are able to adapt to large variations in their physical and functional properties. The adjustment of orienting behavior has been carefully investigated in the barn owl, a nocturnal predator with highly developed auditory capabilities. In the optic tectum of the barn owl, an area well-known to be involved in the production of orienting behavior, neural maps of space in the visual, auditory, and motor modalities are found in close alignment with each other. As a neurophysiological correlate of the adjustment of motor responses, neural maps in the tectum tend to realign if the sensory inputs are manipulated. We have recently proposed that the development and maintenance of such map alignment can be explained through a process of learning, in which plasticity is mediated by the activation of diffuse-projecting neuromodulatory systems which respond to innate or acquired salient cues. This proposal was tested using a detailed computer model of the principal neural structures involved in the process of spatial localisation in the barn owl. Here we consider the application of this model to the control of the orienting behavior of a robotic system in the presence of auditory and visual stimulation. The system we consider is composed of a robotic head equipped with two lateral microphones and a camera. We show that the model produces accurate orienting behavior toward both auditory and visual stimuli during normal visual experience, after alteration of the visual inputs, and after the reestablishment of normal visual conditions. The results illustrate that an architecture specifically designed to account for biological phenomena can produce flexible and robust control of a robotic system.