Determining the binaural signals in bat echolocation

Timos Papadopoulos*, Robert Allen, Stephen Haynes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Echolocating bats are known to outperform manmade systems in the tasks of autonomous navigation and object detection and classification, especially when size, power and computational complexity requirements are considered. As a result, the individual physical mechanisms and processes involved in echolocation (types of signals used, properties of the emission mechanism, echoes created in different echolocation tasks, receptor characteristics as well as the bat's auditory system) have received significant attention as a possible source of bio-inspiration. However, not much attention has been drawn to optimisations that may arise as a combined effect of the above mechanisms. Of key importance in such an investigation would be the knowledge of the binaural signals generated in real echolocation tasks as those are the actual input signals utilised by the bat's auditory system. The direct measurement of these signals is severely restricted by the very small size of most bat species. We describe the development of an experimental facility that combines the measurement and modelling of the aforementioned subsystems for the determination of the binaural signals associated with echolocation. We present initial measurement results and compare them with analytical modelling predictions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCIMTEC 2008 - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures and Systems - Mining Smartness from Nature
PublisherTrans Tech Publications Ltd
Pages97-102
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9783908158158
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes
Event3rd International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures and Systems - Mining Smartness from Nature, CIMTEC 2008 - Acireale, Sicily, Italy
Duration: 8 Jun 200813 Jun 2008

Publication series

NameCIMTEC 2008 - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures and Systems - Mining Smartness from Nature
Volume58

Conference

Conference3rd International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures and Systems - Mining Smartness from Nature, CIMTEC 2008
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityAcireale, Sicily
Period8/06/0813/06/08

Keywords

  • Bat echolocation
  • Bio-inspiration
  • Bioacoustics modelling

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