Focussing on developments in brain inspired hazard perception, reporting on multiple modality neural computation for collision detection, developments on neural vision chip structure and miniaturisation of the systems, preliminary results, relevant to WP2, WP3.
The ULTRACEPT Workshop Three was hosted as an international conference by ULTRACEPT partner Guangzhou University (GZHU). It took place over two days on Thursday 25th & Friday 26th March 2021. Due to the travel restrictions caused by COVID-19, the workshop was held in person by the research group at GZHU and as an online event using MS Teams. 40 researchers attended the sessions.
International Workshop on Bio-Inspired Computation & Bio-Robotics (BICBIR 2021)
ULTRACEPT: Ultra-layered perception with brain-inspired information processing for vehicle collision avoidance: Workshop 3 & Annual Board Meeting
Date: Thursday 25th & Friday 26th March 2021
Location: Guangzhou University, Room 603, Block 2, Innovation Garden, Guangzhou HEMC North, Guangzhou, China 510006 and online MS Teams video conference
| Day 1
Date: Thursday, 25 March 2021 Time: UK 10:00; China 18:00; Germany 11:00; Buenos Aires 07:00; Malaysia 18:00; Japan 19:00 Facilitator: Dr Qinbing Fu |
||
| UK time/ China time | Item | Presenters |
| 10:00-10:10/
18:00-18:10 |
Arrival and welcome
|
Prof Shigang Yue |
| 10:10-11:10/
18:10-19:10 |
Ant-inspired celestial compass yields new opportunities for localization
40 minutes presentation & 20 minutes Q&A Julien Serres was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. He obtained a MSc degree in Electronics, Electrotechnics, and Automatic Control Engineering from Paris-Saclay University and the École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, France, in 2003. In 2003, he joined the Biorobotics Group at the Institute of Movement Sciences, a joint research unit: CNRS and Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France, under the supervision of Dr Nicolas Franceschini. He obtained his Ph.D. degree at the University of Montpellier in 2008. After spending 8 years as teacher in Applied Physics (from 2006 to 2014) at the French Department of Education for training qualified technicians (2 years technical degree in Electrotechnics after the A level), he is at present a senior lecturer at the Biorobotics Group. He is the author or co-author of 90 publications, including 1 patent and 20 indexed journal papers (h-index WoS = 10; h-index Google Scholar = 15). He has already co-supervised 8 PhD students, and his current research interests include biorobotics, bio-inspired visual sensors, insects’ ethology, and the development of bio-inspired autopilot aimed at equipping autonomous robots. |
Dr Julien Serres |
| 11:10-11:25/
19:10-19:25 |
Break: Non-ULTRACEPT attendees to please leave the session in preparation for the ULTRACEPT board meeting commencing. | |
| 11:25-11:55/
19:25-19:55 |
ULTRACEPT annual board meeting: Review of period 1 activities
Attendees: ULTRACEPT board members |
Prof Shigang Yue |
| 11:55-12:50/
19:55-20:50 |
ULTRACEPT annual board meeting: Round table discussion
Attendees: ULTRACEPT board members and EU Project Officer, Irina Tiron. |
All |
| 12:50-13:00/
20:50-21:00 |
ULTRACEPT annual board meeting: Final comments | All |
Following Dr Serres presentation was the annual ULTRACEPT board meeting where the group was joined by the EU Project Officer, Irina Tiron.
| Day 2
Date: Friday, 26 March 2021 Time: UK 10:00; China 18:00; Germany 11:00; Buenos Aires 07:00; Malaysia 18:00; Japan 19:00 Facilitator: Dr Qinbing Fu |
||
| UK time/ China time | Item | Presenters |
| 10:00-10:10/
18:00-18:10
|
Arrival and welcome
|
Prof Jigen Peng & Prof Shigang Yue |
| 10:10-11:10/
18:10-19:10
|
Stereoscopic vision with an insect brain. How the praying mantis estimates depth.
40 minutes presentation & 20 minutes Q&A Ronny Rosner is guest researcher at the Biosciences Institute of Newcastle University, United Kingdom, and member of the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution. In 2003 he received a Diploma in Biology from Rostock University, Germany, where he participated in the development of Biosensorchips for drug testing. He then switched fields to basic research in neurobiology. Ronny studies the small but sophisticated brains of insects. In 2009 Ronny received his PhD from Bielefeld University, Germany. In the laboratories of Professor Martin Egelhaaf and Anne Kathrin Warzecha he worked on the variability of information processing for motion vision in blowflies. He discovered that visual processing for gaze stabilisation depends largely on the behavioural state of the animals. After completion of his thesis, Ronny worked as a research associate and university teacher at the University of Marburg, Germany. With Prof Uwe Homberg, Ronny studied the neuronal substrate for long range navigation in locusts. He discovered that neurons in a major brain area for spatial orientation, the central complex, are not only sensitive to polarised light but also to visual motion. He also discovered that the activity of these neurons changes when the animals are walking as opposed to when they are standing still. In 2014 Ronny went on to Newcastle University where he worked as a research associate in the group of Prof Jenny Read. There, he established neurophysiology and worked on the neuronal substrate for stereoscopic vision in praying mantids. He discovered the first neurons for stereoscopic vision in an invertebrate. The achievement was recognized in scientific and public media internationally. Ronny is also member of the community that establishes the Drosophila connectome, a map of all neurons in the fruit fly brain including all synaptic connections. More recently Ronny became interested in translating findings from insect neurobiology to machine vision. |
Dr Ronny Rosner |
| 11:10-11:40/
19:10-19:40 |
A versatile vision-pheromone-communication platform for swarm robotics
University of Lincoln – 20 minutes presentation & 10 minutes Q&A |
Tian Liu |
| 11:40-11:55/
19:40-19:55 |
Break | |
| 11:55-12:25
19:55-20:25 |
Pan-sharpening of Remote Sensing Images Based on Deep Neural Networks
Guangzhou University – 20 minutes presentation & 10 minutes Q&A |
Dr Changsheng Zhou |
| 12:25-12:55/
20:25-20:55 |
Implementing Refractoriness in LGMD Model: Challenges, Methods and Results
University of Lincoln – 20 minutes presentation & 10 minutes Q&A |
Mu Hua |
| 12:55-13:10/
20:55-21:10 |
Final comments | Prof Jigen Peng & Prof Shigang Yue |
Following Dr Rosner’s presentation was Tian Liu from UoL who presented on ‘A versatile vision-pheromone-communication platform for swarm robotics’.
Dr Changsheng Zhou from host GZHU presented next with ‘Pan-sharpening of Remote Sensing Images Based on Deep Neural Networks’.
The final presentation for the day was from UoL researcher Mu Hua. Mu is currently on an ULTRACEPT secondment at GZHU and presented his research ‘Implementing Refractoriness in LGMD Model: Challenges, Methods and Results’.
