CiNet Monthly Seminar

May 15, 2018
14:00 ~ 15:00
CiNet　1F　Conference Room

“Learning future engineering from acoustic navigation of bats”

Shizuko Hiryu
Professor
Faculty of Life and Medical Sciences
Doshisya University

Host : Tamani Nakano (Kitazawa Group)

Abstract:
Bats possess a highly developed SONAR system. They are capable of echolocation which instantaneously recognizes the physical attributes of their environment by comparing emitted ultrasounds with returning echoes for hunting prey, avoiding obstacles and traveling long distance in complete darkness. To reveal sophisticated acoustic navigation of bats, we use several approaches to bat tracking, i.e., precise observation of small scale navigation in a laboratory as well as GPS tracking for large scale navigation of wild bats.

In this presentation, I will introduce “compensation behavior” of echolocating bats which is known as the basic but unique design of acoustic sensing in bat’s biosonar system. I also present our recent study about jamming avoidance behavior of bats using telemetry microphone technique while echolocation pulses were individually recorded from the bats during group flight in a laboratory chamber. On the other hand, the most advanced performance of echolocation can be seen from wild bats in the field. We measured the 3D flight path of wild bats during natural foraging as well as the direction of ultrasounds emitted by the bat which corresponds to the visual line direction of visually guided animals. I show that wild bats plan their future flight path, distributing their attention among multiple target prey for effective foraging.