Memristor-based biomimetic compound eye for real-time collision detection

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 5979
• Main Authors: Wang, Yan, Gong, Yue, Huang, Shenming, Xing, Xuechao, Lv, Ziyu, Wang, Junjie, Yang, Jia-Qin, Zhang, Guohua, Zhou, Ye, Han, Su-Ting
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 13-10-2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166/987; 639/301/1005/1007; 639/925/357/1018; Artificial vision; Biomimetic materials; Biomimetics; Collision avoidance; Compound eye; Energy efficiency; Energy storage; Eye (anatomy); Field of view; Filaments; Humanities and Social Sciences; Indium tin oxides; Integrated circuits; Integration; Light; Light effects; Memristors; Motion detection; Motion perception; multidisciplinary; Neurons; Obstacle avoidance; Photoreceptors; Quantum dots; Random access memory; Real time; Robots; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensors; Switching; Transistors; Velocity; Very large scale integration; Vision systems; Visual fields; Visual thresholds
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26314-8

The lobula giant movement detector (LGMD) is the movement-sensitive, wide-field visual neuron positioned in the third visual neuropile of lobula. LGMD neuron can anticipate collision and trigger avoidance efficiently owing to the earlier occurring firing peak before collision. Vision chips inspired by the LGMD have been successfully implemented in very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) system. However, transistor-based chips and single devices to simulate LGMD neurons make them bulky, energy-inefficient and complicated. The devices with relatively compact structure and simple operation mode to mimic the escape response of LGMD neuron have not been realized yet. Here, the artificial LGMD visual neuron is implemented using light-mediated threshold switching memristor. The non-monotonic response to light flow field originated from the formation and break of Ag conductive filaments is analogue to the escape response of LGMD neuron. Furthermore, robot navigation with obstacle avoidance capability and biomimetic compound eyes with wide field-of-view (FoV) detection capability are demonstrated.
Development of real-time sensing capability in artificial vision system requires an integration that allow sensing, computation, and storage, whilst remain energy efficient and compact. Here, the authors mimic the lobula giant movement detector to achieve this objective via light-mediated threshold switching memristor.