Abstract

The ability to detect, track and pursue a moving target in a complex environment is a challenging task, even for the most sophisticated vi-sion systems. Evolutionary priorities have tuned this ability within some flying insects, so that they may chase moving targets such as prey or mates. We record from neurons within the insect optic lobes that likely underlie this behaviour and develop bio-inspired models of this feature discrimination system. These models have applications in defence, surveillance and robotics where difficulties faced in visual and naviga-tion tasks are similar to those solved by flying insects.