The team’s flagship crab-eye camera is half-submerged in the water for amphibious imaging. Credit: Lee et al.
To navigate effectively in real-world environments, robots typically analyze images collected by imaging devices that are integrated into their bodies. To improve the performance of robots, engineers are trying to develop different types of high-performance cameras, sensors and artificial vision systems.
Many artificial vision systems developed so far draw inspiration from the eyes of humans, animals, insects and fish. These systems have different functions and characteristics depending on the environment in which they are designed to operate.
Most existing sensors and cameras are designed to operate either on the ground (i.e. in a terrestrial environment) or in water (i.e. in an aquatic environment). Biologically inspired artificial vision systems that can operate in both terrestrial and aquatic environments, on the other hand, remain scarce.
Researchers from the Institute of Basic Sciences (IBS), Seoul National University, Gwangju Institute of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Technology, and the University of Texas at Austin recently created a new vision system inspired by crabs that can work both on land , as well as in the water. This amphibious system, presented in an article published in Natural electronicsallows robots to get a panoramic 360° view of their surroundings so they can detect obstacles and navigate the environment more efficiently.
“Previous developments (including our group’s research) on wide-field-of-view (FoV) cameras were always less than 180°, which is not enough for the ‘full’ panoramic view, and was not suitable for changing outdoor environments, Young Min Song, one of the researchers who conducted the study, said Tech Xplore. “We wanted to develop a 360° FoV camera that could shoot in both air and water.”
Image setup for the crab-eye camera. Credit: Lee et al.
The artificial vision system developed by this team of researchers takes inspiration from the eyes of fiddler crabs. This unique species, also known as shouting crabs, can get a full panoramic view of their surroundings without having to move their eyes and body. To artificially reproduce the eyes of the fiddler crab, Min and his colleagues used a flat camera lens.
“If you use a conventional curvature lens for imaging, its focal point changes when you submerge the lens in water,” explained Song. “On the other hand, if you use a flat surface lens, you can see a clear image regardless of the environmental conditions. The fiddler crab that lives in the intertidal region has this kind of flat surface on its lens, and we just mimicked that crab’s eye lens.”
To create their advanced vision system, the researchers integrated an array of planar microlenses with a graded refractive index and an array of flexible comb-shaped silicon photodiodes on a spherical structure. The microlenses they used could maintain their focal length regardless of changes in the external refractive index between air and water.
“To our knowledge, this is the first time we have demonstrated amphibious and panoramic vision systems globally,” Song said. “Our vision system could pave the way for 360° omnidirectional cameras with applications in virtual or augmented reality or all-weather vision for autonomous vehicles.”
Song and his colleagues tested their system in a series of optical simulations and imaging demonstrations, taking into account the characteristics of both terrestrial and aquatic environments. So far, they have found that it has achieved promising results, so it may soon be tested and implemented on several different hybrid and amphibious robots.
“In our next studies, we will conduct further engineering to achieve higher resolution and superior imaging performance,” Song added. “In addition, we are still interested in developing a new type of camera with unique imaging characteristics inspired by the eyes of other animals.”
Fiddler crab eye view inspires researchers to develop new artificial vision More information: Mincheol Lee et al, An amphibian artificial vision system with a panoramic field of view, Natural electronics (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-022-00789-9
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