Meeting Abstract

45.1  Tuesday, Jan. 5  Autonomous Cricket Biosensors for Acoustic Detection MULCAHEY, Thomas I. *; HORSTMANN, Jan T.; HU, David L.; SABRA, Karim; WEISSBURG, Marc; Georgia Institute of Technology; Georgia Institute of Technology; Georgia Institute of Technology; Georgia Institute of Technology; Georgia Institute of Technology tom.mulcahey@gmail.com

This project characterizes and utilizes the underlying signal processing mechanisms responsible for gaining useful acoustic information from cercal hair arrays on crickets. Whereas previous investigations explored crickets’ neurological response to near field flows generated by single frequency steady-state sounds, our investigation focuses on impulsive waveforms, which better represent real world stimuli, and to which the cercal system appears to be most reactive. Extracellular recording electrodes are permanently implanted into a cricket’s ventral nerve cord to record the action potentials emanating from the cerci. We process the signals to estimate frequency and directionality of near field acoustic sources. The resulting bionic cricket-computer system is capable of localizing low frequency near field acoustic signals (5 Hz – 600 Hz) while going about its natural activities such as locomotion. In order to calibrate this system, we attempt to find the relationships between the frequency/direction of acoustic stimuli and the neurological responses they elicit. The intention of this project is to design networked arrays of cricket biosensors capable of localizing sources such as footsteps within dangerous environments, and possible application to earthquake detection.