Abstract
In an effort to better understand how large groups of bats can achieve collective motion relying only on echolocation in extremely complex acoustic scenarios, the Ro-Bat platform was ideated and realized. After the successful implementation of a robot capable of passive echolocation, the necessary following step was to give the very same robot the facilities to echolocate by actively emitting loud ultrasonic calls and processing their echoes, just as bats and other animal species do continuously to move in their surroundings. For this reason several pieces of equipment were developed, such as a suitable audio source and a microphone array intended intended to work at ultrasonic frequencies, together with a signal processing chain apt to emulate the behaviour of an echolocating bat on the move. The system built was then characterized regarding its acoustic performances, and its obstacle avoidance behaviour was tested. Having reached a satisfying prototype, this platform will be replicated in the near future to put to test multiple robots echolocating together, to test a multitude of variables which can influence the achievement of a successful acoustically mediated collective movement.
About the speaker
Gabriele Baroli earned his B.Sc. in Engineering of Computing Systems from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 2022. He is currently completing his M.Sc. in Music and Acoustic Engineering at the same university, working on his thesis at the University of Konstanz. His research is hosted by the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour and co-supervised by Andreagiovanni Reina (GIO-Lab) and Thejasvi Beleyur (Active Sensing Collectives).