Neural preprocessing of auditory-wind sensory signals and modular neural control for auditory- and wind-evoked escape responses of walking machines

Abstract

The flying crickets Teleogryllus oceanicus have sound sensitive organs to elicit an “acoustic startle response”. Another kind of the startle response is also evident in the cockroaches Periplaneta and the crickets Gryllus bimaculatus where they use their cercal filiform hairs (wind sensitive hairs) to trigger so called “wind-evoked escape behavior”. Similarly, in this paper a setup is described where an auditory-wind detector sensor and a neural preprocessing system together with a modular neural controller are used to simulate such animal behaviors in an abstract form on a six-legged walking machine. The neural preprocessing network acts as a low-pass filter and sensory shaping unit. In addition, the modular neural controller then generates the desired responses such that the machine performs a fast movement away from abrupt, intense, and unexpected auditory and/or wind stimulus in a physical environment.