SOUND LOCALIZING ROBOT

摘要

There is provided a biomimetic robot modelling the highly directional lizard ear. Since the directionality is very robust, the neural processing is very simple. This mobile sound localizing robot can therefore easily be miniaturized. The invention is based on a simple electric circuit emulating the lizard ear acoustics with sound input from two small microphones. The circuit generates a robust directionality around 2-4 kHz. The output of the circuit is fed to a model nervous system. The nervous system model is bilateral and contains a set of band-pass filters followed by simulated EI-neurons that compare inputs from the two ears. This model is implemented in software on a digital signal processor and controls the left and right-steering motors of the robot. Additionally, the nervous system model contains a neural network that can self-adapt so as to auto-calibrate the device.