Science Daily July 20, 2022
Previous behavioral research on live sea lions showed that the whisker system and the animal’s neural processing is seemingly able to detect the Direction of Arrival (DoA) from just one side of the heads vibrissal pads. Therefore, temporal differences between whisker stimulation are a likely method for determining the angle. Researchers in the UK developed a theoretical model based on multilateration and tested by experimental studies on a 2D array of bio-inspired whiskers with regular spacing, and a 3D array of bio-inspired whiskers on a model head of a sea lion, as used in their previous studies. The results showed that arrays of whiskers can in principle work as antennae to determine the DoA. This detection of the DoA was achieved by cross-correlation of triplets of whiskers, and Time Difference Of Arrival based multilateration, a method like signal processing in modern communication systems and other source localization applications. The results on the 2D array were conclusive and clearly support the hypothesis, while increased uncertainties were found for the 3D array, which could be explained by structural shortcomings of the experimental model. Possible ways to improve the signal are discussed….read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Picture of the experimental setup showing the vortex ring generator filled with pink dye… Credit: Scientific Reports volume 12, Article number: 11764 (2022)Â