Introduction (Visuo-motor control)
An Engineering Approach to Investigate Biological Visuo-Motor Control
This report presents a summary of research, funded by the Carver Charitable Trust, undertaken by members of the Theoretical Biophysics Group of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the direction of Professor Klaus Schulten. The work discussed covers the period from March 1993 to February 1994, i.e., the second and final period of funding provided by the Carver Charitable Trust. The research pursued in this period extends and develops upon the original aim of the project, namely, development of a unified model of visuo-motor control employing known biological principles. The primary aim of the research has been to develop neural architectures capable of effecting control of the robot system illustrated in the figure.
The approach adopted by the group remains as outlined in the report on the work covering the previous funding period submitted to the Carver Charitable Trust, namely, individual group members each pursue their own project, but collaborate closely on the many aspects which are common to the projects. The principal themes of the research, as presented in the previous report, include:
- visual processing
- postural control
- control of manipulation
- optimization of movement
- learning strategies
The notable feature of the work described in the present report is the increasing sophistication of the approaches employed to address the many unresolved issues surrounding visuo-motor control in biological systems.
