Cognitive and Computational Psychophysics
Spatial Cognition

Getting around in space is a behavioral competence which is crucial for autonomous robots, animals, and humans. Obstacle avoidance and course control are relatively simple tasks that do not require a memory of space. Spatio-temporal maneuvers such as docking to a larger object, systematic search, or path integration require some type of working memory. Navigation in a strict sense involves a goal which must be recognized when it is reached. The information used to recognize the goal forms a kind of longterm memory. By storing information not just on the goal itself but also on the visual panorama as it appears from the goal position, image-based mechanisms can be devised that allow the approach of a goal from a larger catchment area.

Finding ways in environments composed of several "chambers" or otherwise visually isolated parts is the most challenging part of navigation. Direction or recognition triggered response (left figure) associates actions such as turns or new goal specifications with a recognized landmark configuration or intermediate Goal. Chains of such steps implement a route to a distant goal. Finally, cognitive behavior is characterized by goal dependent flexibility (right figure): the memory contains information telling the agent that it has to go left to reach the beacon and right for the iglu.

These projects are devoted to spatial cognition:

Journal Publications

  • Gillner, S. & Mallot, H.A. (1998) Navigation and acquisition of spatial knowledge in a virtual maze. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 10, 445-463
  • Van Veen, H. A. H. C., Distler, H. K., Braun, S. J. & Bülthoff, H. H. (1998) Navigating through a virtual city: Using virtual reality technology to study human action and perception. Future Generation Computer Systems 14, 231-242
  • Franz, M.O., Schölkopf, B., Mallot, H.A. & Bülthoff, H. H. (1998) Where did I take this snapshot? Scene-based homing by image matching. Biological Cybernetics 79 , 191-202
  • Franz, M.O., Schölkopf, B., Mallot, H.A. & Bülthoff, H. H. (1998) Learning view graphs for robot navigation. Autonomous Robots 5, 111-125
  • Schölkopf, B. & H.A. Mallot (1995): View-based cognitive mapping and path planning. Adaptive Behavior 3, 311-348.

Technical Reports

  • Hanspeter A. Mallot (November 1998)
    Spatial Cognition: Behavioral Competences, Neural Mechanisms and Evolutionary Scaling
    10 pages:  postscript (256 K), pdf (294 K)
  • Matthias O. Franz, Hanspeter A. Mallot (October 1998)
    Biomimetic robot navigation
    Get Abstract
  • Hanspeter A. Mallot, Sabine Gillner (October 1998)
    View-based vs. place-based navigation: What is recognized in recognition-triggered responses?
    12 pages:  postscript (584 K), pdf (434 K)
  • Sibylle D. Steck, Hanspeter A. Mallot (October 1998)
    The Role of Global and Local Landmarks in Virtual Environment Navigation
    16 pages:  postscript (493 K), pdf (325 K)
  • Matthias O. Franz, Holger G. Krapp (June 1998)
    Wide-Field, Motion-Sensitive Neurons and Optimal Matched Filters for Optic Flow
    18 pages:  postscript (453 K), pdf (418 K)
  • Huber, SA, Franz, MO, Bülthoff, HH (February 1998)
    On Robots and Flies: Modeling the visual orientation behavior of flies
    17 pages: postscript (637 K), pdf (354 K)
  • Susanne A. Huber, Hanspeter A. Mallot, Heinrich H. Bülthoff (May 1998)
    Modeling biological sensorimotor control with genetic algorithms
    19 pages: postscript (1193 K), pdf (1002K)

25-apr-2000