Optimal Morphology of a Biologically-Inspired Whisker Array on an Obstacle-Avoiding Robot

Abstract. Whiskers are versatile sensors for short-range navigation and exploration that are widespread in many animal species, especially in rodents. Their arrangement is in very precise rows and arcs on both sides of the animal’s head. The controlled variations between species and the conservation within a species indicates a prominent role of their morphology for their functioning. Because of their enormous potential for robotic applications, we constructed a robot with two multi-whisker arrays, and evaluated the morphology and arrangement of the whiskers in an obstacle-avoidance task. We found that an artificial whisker array uncommon in nature performed best, and we argue that this might be explained by additional functions whiskers have in animals.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: ECAL
• Authors: Miriam Fend, Hiroshi Yokoi, Rolf Pfeifer
• Keywords: Additional Functions Whiskers, ECAL 2003, Short-range Navigation, Whiskers