Use of a robot arm in study of the motion perception process

Abstract

In this article some of the research areas of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen in Germany are presented, with emphasizing the problem of self motion perception and the distance judging processes in the human brain. The KUKA Robot Arm used in experiments at MPI and problems with its software are described. Finally an example of the experiment that was run with help of the KUKA Robot Arm is given.
The author: Agnieszka LEYKO

1. Introduction

The inspiration to write this article was the internship I began in February in Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen in Germany. It is a unique place where scientists from different fields work together to find out how the human brain is functioning. The main part of the team working in the Department of Cognitive and Computational Psychophysics, which I joined, are psychologists and computer scientists who with help of physical phenomena are examining the human perception system. For me as a physicist it is a very important experience, because I see how the Physics can be useful in other research fields.