Neurorobotics 62. Neurorobotics: From Vision to Action

The lay view of a robot is a mechanical human,and thus robotics has always been inspired by at-tempts to emulate biology. In this Chapter, weextend this biological motivation from humans toanimals more generally, but with a focus on thecentral nervous systems rather than the bodies ofthese creatures. In particular, we investigate thesensorimotor loop in the execution of sophisti-cated behavior. Some of these sections concentrateon cases where vision provides key sensory data.Neuroethology is the study of the brain mecha-nisms underlying animal behavior, and Sect.62.2exemplifies the lessons it has to offer robotics bylooking at optic flow in bees, visually guided be-havior in frogs, and navigation in rats, turningthen to the coordination of behaviors and the roleof attention. Brains are composed of diverse sub-systems, many of which are relevant to robotics,but we have chosen just two regions of the mam-malian brain for detailed analysis. Section 62.3presents the cerebellum. While we can plan andexecute actions without a cerebellum, the actionsare no longer graceful and become uncoordinated.We reveal how a cerebellum can provide a keyingredient in an adaptive control system, tun-ing parameters both within and between motorschemas. Section 62.4 turns to the mirror sys-tem, which provides shared representations whichbridge between the execution of an action andthe observation of that action when performedby others. We develop a neurobiological model ofhow learning may forge mirror neurons for hand62.1