Active Sensing

Active sensing describes the purposive movement and positioning of sensory systems in order to improve the amount or quality of information that is obtained by the animal. Saccadic control of eye movements that direct gaze towards the salient parts of a visual scene are a paradigmatic example of active sensing in humans, explored here in the talk by Dana Ballard in relation to the task of driving a car. The mammalian vibrissal (facial whisker) system is another important model system where our understanding of both active sensing behavior, and of its substrates in the brain, is creating new insights into how animals, including humans, perceive and understand their world. The talks by Mitra Hartmann and Tony Prescott examine active vibrissal sensing from the whisker-tip through to the cortex and explore how it can be replicated in robots.