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Gidugu AR, Vandavasi BNJ, Narayanaswamy V. Bio-inspired machine-learning aided geo-magnetic field based AUV navigation system. Sci Rep 2024; 14:17912. [PMID: 39095609 PMCID: PMC11297227 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-68950-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2024] [Accepted: 07/30/2024] [Indexed: 08/04/2024] Open
Abstract
The navigational accuracy of sea animals and trans-ocean birds provides inspiration in using geo-magnetic field (GMF) for realizing strategic truly autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) capable of determining their absolute position on earth, without the aid of ship-referenced acoustic baseline systems. Supervised Machine Learning algorithms are applied on the GMF intensity data obtained from NOAA World Magnetic Model for a 900 km2 within the Indian mineral exploratory area in the Central Indian Ocean, with a resolution of 50 m, considering the sensitivity of commercially available magnetometers. It is identified that, for AUVs equipped with magnetometers with a detection sensitivity of 0.1 nT, the supervisory random forest regression and decision tree algorithm trained with priori GMF data, could provide trajectory guidance to AUVs with an absolute mean position accuracy in 2D plane, with reference to the last known position from Integrated Navigation system aided initially with GPS and with acoustic positioning in underwater. Circular Error Probable (CEP 50) of 53 m and 56 m, respectively. The scalar GMF anomaly navigation demonstrated to be a viable GPS-alternative navigation system could be extended to larger areas with inclination and declination vectors, as unique identifiers.
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Gagliardo A, Bingman VP. The avian olfactory system and hippocampus: Complementary roles in the olfactory and visual guidance of homing pigeon navigation. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2024; 86:102870. [PMID: 38552546 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2024.102870] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2023] [Revised: 02/19/2024] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
The homing pigeon is the foundational model species used to investigate the neural control of avian navigation. The olfactory system is critically involved in implementing the so-called olfactory map, used to locate position relative to home from unfamiliar locations. The hippocampal formation supports a complementary navigational system based on familiar visual landmarks. Insight into the neural control of pigeon navigation has been revolutionised by GPS-tracking technology, which has been crucial for both detailing the critical role of environmental odours for navigation over unfamiliar areas as well as offering unprecedented insight into the role of the hippocampal formation in visual landscape/landmark-based navigation, including a possible, unexpected role in visual-spatial perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Gagliardo
- Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
| | - Verner P Bingman
- Department of Psychology, J.P. Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind and Behavior, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA
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Shirdhankar RN, Malkemper EP. Cognitive maps and the magnetic sense in vertebrates. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2024; 86:102880. [PMID: 38657284 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2024.102880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2023] [Revised: 03/04/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
Navigation requires a network of neurons processing inputs from internally generated cues and external landmarks. Most studies on the neuronal basis of navigation in vertebrates have focused on rats and mice and the canonical senses vision, hearing, olfaction, and somatosensation. Some animals have evolved the ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it for orientation. It can be expected that in these animals magnetic cues are integrated with other sensory cues in the cognitive map. We provide an overview of the behavioral evidence and brain regions involved in magnetic sensing in support of this idea, hoping that this will guide future experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Runita N Shirdhankar
- Research Group Neurobiology of Magnetoreception, Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior - Caesar, Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, Bonn 53175, Germany; International Max Planck Research School for Brain and Behavior, Bonn, Germany
| | - E Pascal Malkemper
- Research Group Neurobiology of Magnetoreception, Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior - Caesar, Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, Bonn 53175, Germany.
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Cioccarelli S, Giunchi D, Pollonara E, Casini G, Bingman VP, Gagliardo A. GPS tracking technology and re-visiting the relationship between the avian visual Wulst and homing pigeon navigation. Behav Brain Res 2024; 465:114971. [PMID: 38552743 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2024] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/24/2024] [Indexed: 04/01/2024]
Abstract
Within their familiar areas homing pigeons rely on familiar visual landscape features and landmarks for homing. However, the neural basis of visual landmark-based navigation has been so far investigated mainly in relation to the role of the hippocampal formation. The avian visual Wulst is the telencephalic projection field of the thalamofugal pathway that has been suggested to be involved in processing lateral visual inputs that originate from the far visual field. The Wulst is therefore a good candidate for a neural structure participating in the visual control of familiar visual landmark-based navigation. We repeatedly released and tracked Wulst-lesioned and control homing pigeons from three sites about 10-15 km from the loft. Wulst lesions did not impair the ability of the pigeons to orient homeward during the first release from each of the three sites nor to localise the loft within the home area. In addition, Wulst-lesioned pigeons displayed unimpaired route fidelity acquisition to a repeated homing path compared to the intact birds. However, compared to control birds, Wulst-lesioned pigeons displayed persistent oscillatory flight patterns across releases, diminished attention to linear (leading lines) landscape features, such as roads and wood edges, and less direct flight paths within the home area. Differences and similarities between the effects of Wulst and hippocampal lesions suggest that although the visual Wulst does not seem to play a direct role in the memory representation of a landscape-landmark map, it does seem to participate in influencing the perceptual construction of such a map.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Dimitri Giunchi
- Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa 56126, Italy
| | | | - Giovanni Casini
- Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa 56126, Italy
| | - Verner P Bingman
- Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA; J. P. Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind and Behavior, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA
| | - Anna Gagliardo
- Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa 56126, Italy.
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Patrick SC, Assink JD, Basille M, Clusella-Trullas S, Clay TA, den Ouden OFC, Joo R, Zeyl JN, Benhamou S, Christensen-Dalsgaard J, Evers LG, Fayet AL, Köppl C, Malkemper EP, Martín López LM, Padget O, Phillips RA, Prior MK, Smets PSM, van Loon EE. Infrasound as a Cue for Seabird Navigation. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.740027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Seabirds are amongst the most mobile of all animal species and spend large amounts of their lives at sea. They cross vast areas of ocean that appear superficially featureless, and our understanding of the mechanisms that they use for navigation remains incomplete, especially in terms of available cues. In particular, several large-scale navigational tasks, such as homing across thousands of kilometers to breeding sites, are not fully explained by visual, olfactory or magnetic stimuli. Low-frequency inaudible sound, i.e., infrasound, is ubiquitous in the marine environment. The spatio-temporal consistency of some components of the infrasonic wavefield, and the sensitivity of certain bird species to infrasonic stimuli, suggests that infrasound may provide additional cues for seabirds to navigate, but this remains untested. Here, we propose a framework to explore the importance of infrasound for navigation. We present key concepts regarding the physics of infrasound and review the physiological mechanisms through which infrasound may be detected and used. Next, we propose three hypotheses detailing how seabirds could use information provided by different infrasound sources for navigation as an acoustic beacon, landmark, or gradient. Finally, we reflect on strengths and limitations of our proposed hypotheses, and discuss several directions for future work. In particular, we suggest that hypotheses may be best tested by combining conceptual models of navigation with empirical data on seabird movements and in-situ infrasound measurements.
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Martinho A, Biro D, Guilford T, Gagliardo A, Kacelnik A. Asymmetric visual input and route recapitulation in homing pigeons. Proc Biol Sci 2016; 282:20151957. [PMID: 26446810 PMCID: PMC4614786 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1957] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Pigeons (Columba livia) display reliable homing behaviour, but their homing routes from familiar release points are individually idiosyncratic and tightly recapitulated, suggesting that learning plays a role in route establishment. In light of the fact that routes are learned, and that both ascending and descending visual pathways share visual inputs from each eye asymmetrically to the brain hemispheres, we investigated how information from each eye contributes to route establishment, and how information input is shared between left and right neural systems. Using on-board global positioning system loggers, we tested 12 pigeons' route fidelity when switching from learning a route with one eye to homing with the other, and back, in an A-B-A design. Two groups of birds, trained first with the left or first with the right eye, formed new idiosyncratic routes after switching eyes, but those that flew first with the left eye formed these routes nearer to their original routes. This confirms that vision plays a major role in homing from familiar sites and exposes a behavioural consequence of neuroanatomical asymmetry whose ontogeny is better understood than its functional significance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antone Martinho
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Tim Guilford
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Anna Gagliardo
- Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, Pisa 56126, Italy
| | - Alex Kacelnik
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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Wallraff HG. An amazing discovery: bird navigation based on olfaction. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2016; 218:1464-6. [PMID: 25994630 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.109348] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Pollonara E, Luschi P, Guilford T, Wikelski M, Bonadonna F, Gagliardo A. Olfaction and topography, but not magnetic cues, control navigation in a pelagic seabird: displacements with shearwaters in the Mediterranean Sea. Sci Rep 2015; 5:16486. [PMID: 26548946 PMCID: PMC4637929 DOI: 10.1038/srep16486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2015] [Accepted: 10/14/2015] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Pelagic seabirds wander the open oceans then return accurately to their habitual nest-sites. We investigated the effects of sensory manipulation on oceanic navigation in Scopoli’s shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea) breeding at Pianosa island (Italy), by displacing them 400 km from their colony and tracking them. A recent experiment on Atlantic shearwaters (Cory’s shearwater, Calonectris borealis) breeding in the Azores indicated a crucial role of olfaction over the open ocean, but left open the question of whether birds might navigate by topographical landmark cues when available. Our experiment was conducted in the Mediterranean sea, where the availability of topographical cues may provide an alternative navigational mechanism for homing. Magnetically disturbed shearwaters and control birds oriented homeward even when the coast was not visible and rapidly homed. Anosmic shearwaters oriented in a direction significantly different from the home direction when in open sea. After having approached a coastline their flight path changed from convoluted to homeward oriented, so that most of them eventually reached home. Beside confirming that magnetic cues appear unimportant for oceanic navigation by seabirds, our results support the crucial role of olfactory cues for birds’ navigation and reveal that anosmic shearwaters are able to home eventually by following coastal features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrica Pollonara
- Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - Paolo Luschi
- Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - Tim Guilford
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK
| | - Martin Wikelski
- Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Department of Migration and Immuno-ecology, Schlossallee 2, Radolfzell 78315, Germany.,Dept. of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78468 Konstanz, Germany
| | | | - Anna Gagliardo
- Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, 56126 Pisa, Italy
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