A good win for an Aussie researcher.  Those who attended the Asian 
Apicultural Conference in Perth, Australia earlier this year would have 
heard Professor Srinivsan as he was one of the keynote speakers.

Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA

Bee brain researcher wins science prize By Jane Bunce
October 16, 2006 09:13pm

A BEE researcher who used the insect's precision flying systems to overhaul
robotic aircraft navigation has won the $300,000 Prime Minister's Prize for
Science.

Australian National University Professor Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan is
working with the US Army and NASA to design tiny craft based on his
research of bees' brains that could be used to explore Mars and reduce
danger for soldiers on the battlefield.

Prof Srinivasan said bees were expert navigators despite their small size
and brains the size of a sesame seed, and could be trained to navigate
through mazes, follow coloured signs and distinguish between patterns to
find food.

"What is amazing is these tiny creatures can learn something like that,"
said Prof Srinivasan, who trained as an engineer in India but began
studying flies and later bees "purely out of interest and curiosity".

"Nature has evolved these systems through a million years of evolution."

He said humans judged distances by comparing the images from their two
eyes, but insects could not use the same stereo vision system because their
eyes were too close together.

Instead they observed how rapidly objects appeared to move on the retinas
in their eyes ? if they moved quickly, the object was close; slowly, and it
was far away.

"That seems to be the trick that's useful for robot navigation because it's
very simple to put it into the computer, it's a lot simpler than stereo
navigation," Prof Srinivasan said.

"That's what allows us to put it into miniature vehicles to help with
navigation."

Prof Srinivasan said the navigation system could be used to control small
vehicles carried by a larger spaceship and used to explore other planets
such as Mars.

"The idea is to have a lot of miniature cheap disposable exploring aircraft
instead of one big machine, where if something goes wrong with it the whole
expedition is jeopardised," he said.

"It's also good for searching a much larger area of the terrain."

The military was interested in the possibility of small disposable aircraft
that could be sent ahead of soldiers to look for danger.

Prof Srinivasan's team has already put bee-like navigation systems into
model aircraft and is testing their ability to fly through narrow gaps,
land and avoid collisions.

It also has begun investigating how angry bees chased moving targets to
learn how their guidance systems functioned, work that could eventually
have an application for unmanned combat planes.

Prof Srinivasan said the Prime Minister's Prize was totally unexpected as
his research was "a bit of a niche".

"That's what I value so much about this prize ... people are realising
basic research can produce unexpected dividends," he said.

In a speech at the award ceremony in Parliament House tonight, Prime
Minister John Howard said Prof Srinivasan had revealed the working of the
insect mind and helped redefine robotics ? traditionally expensive and
complex ? in the process.

"What started 23 years ago as basic research with no apparent application,
is now followed closely by robotics experts around the world," he said. 

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