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Research Article

Miniature curved artificial compound eyes

Dario Floreano, Ramon Pericet-Camara, Stéphane Viollet, Franck Ruffier, Andreas Brückner, Robert Leitel, Wolfgang Buss, Mohsine Menouni, Fabien Expert, Raphaël Juston, Michal Karol Dobrzynski, Geraud L’Eplattenier, Fabian Recktenwald, Hanspeter A. Mallot, and Nicolas Franceschini
PNAS June 4, 2013 110 (23) 9267-9272; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1219068110
Dario Floreano
aLaboratory of Intelligent Systems, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
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  • For correspondence: dario.floreano@epfl.ch
Ramon Pericet-Camara
aLaboratory of Intelligent Systems, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
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Stéphane Viollet
bAix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7287, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France;
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Franck Ruffier
bAix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7287, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France;
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Andreas Brückner
cFraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, 07745 Jena, Germany;
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Robert Leitel
cFraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, 07745 Jena, Germany;
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Wolfgang Buss
cFraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, 07745 Jena, Germany;
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Mohsine Menouni
dAix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7346, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France; and
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Fabien Expert
bAix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7287, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France;
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Raphaël Juston
bAix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7287, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France;
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Michal Karol Dobrzynski
aLaboratory of Intelligent Systems, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
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Geraud L’Eplattenier
aLaboratory of Intelligent Systems, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
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Fabian Recktenwald
eLaboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
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Hanspeter A. Mallot
eLaboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
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Nicolas Franceschini
bAix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7287, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France;
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  1. Edited by Wilson S. Geisler, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, and approved April 23, 2013 (received for review November 7, 2012)

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    Fig. 1.

    Artificial and natural curved compound eyes. (A) Image of the CurvACE prototype. The entire device occupies a volume of 2.2 cm3, weighs 1.75 g, and consumes 0.9 W at maximum power. (B) Illustration of the panoramic FOV of the fabricated prototype. The dots and circles represent the angular orientation and acceptance angle Δρ of every ommatidium, respectively. Compound eye of the extinct trilobite Erbenochile erbeni (22) (C) and of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (D). [(C) Reprinted from ref. 22 with permission from AAAS; (D) Reprinted from ref. 44 with permission from AAAS.]

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    Fig. 2.

    CurvACE design and assembly. (A) Scheme of the three layers that compose the CurvACE artificial ommatidia: optical (microlenses and apertures), photodetector (CMOS chip), and interconnection (PCB). (B) Accurate alignment and assembly process of the artificial ommatidia layers in planar configuration. (C) Dicing of the assembled array in columns down to the flexible interconnection layer, which remains intact. (D) Curving of the ommatidial array along the bendable direction and attachment to a rigid semicylindrical substrate with a radius of curvature of 6.4 mm to build the CurvACE prototype. Two rigid circuit boards containing two microcontrollers, one three-axis accelerometer, and one three-axis rate gyroscope are inserted into the rigid substrate concavity and soldered to the sides of the ommatidia through dedicated pads (Figs. S3D and S4).

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    Fig. 3.

    Characterization of CurvACE angular sensitivity. (A) Measured ASF along the middle (equatorial) row (black curves), with the corresponding interommatidial angles Δφh eq (red triangles) and mean acceptance angles Δρh (blue circles) of the CurvACE ommatidia averaged along every column. Error bars display SDs. (B) Mean horizontal interommatidial and acceptance angles averaged along every row of artificial ommatidia as a function of the elevation angle α. The black curve shows the theoretical Δφh values obtained using Eq. S10 with a constant Δφh max of 4.2°. (C) Schematic representation of the acceptance angle Δρ of an ommatidium and the interommatidial angle Δφ calculated from the peak ASFs of two neighboring ommatidia. (D) Measured ASFs along a single column of artificial ommatidia (black curves), mean vertical interommatidial (red triangles), and acceptance angles (blue circles) averaged along every row of artificial ommatidia. a.u., arbitrary units; deg., degree.

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    Fig. 4.

    CurvACE autoadaptation to ambient light at the single ommatidium level. Steady-state (red dots) and transient (green dots) responses of the adaptive analog VLSI photodetectors [design based on a circuit proposed by Delbrück and Mead (27)]. Each of the four dynamic operating curves (in green) shows the V(log I) response, averaged over 11 ommatidia (photodetectors with optics) of one column, to step increments and decrements of irradiance (Fig. S6) about four steady levels (red circles).

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    Fig. 5.

    Optic flow fields from the CurvACE prototype. Cylindrical equidistant projections of the optic flow field calculated with a modified version of the Lucas–Kanade method (29, 30) from the visual signals obtained by the CurvACE prototype subjected to roll motion (Fig. S8B) at 32° per second and at a distance of about 1 m to a wall displaying random black and white patterns (A) or to linear translation (Fig. S8C) at 3 cm/s toward the patterned wall at a distance of 1 cm (B). The red spot displays the center of rotation (A) or the focus of expansion (B).

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    Fig. 6.

    Characterization of CurvACE motion detection capabilities. (A–C) Angular speed characteristics of CurvACE calculated with a method based on the time-of-travel scheme (32) (Fig. S9) assessed by applying steps of yaw rotational speed Ωyaw to the sensor at 10° per second, lasting 10 s each, with the prototype placed at the center of a 105-cm diameter arena lined with prints of a natural image. The dashed line displays the theoretical trend.

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    Table 1.

    Specifications of CurvACE prototype compared with the characteristics of the Drosophila melanogaster compound eye

    CurvACEDrosophila eye [Ref(s).]
    Number of ommatidia630600–700
    Facet diameter, μm17216 (42)
    Eye diameter, mm12.80.36 (42)
    Facet diameter/eye diameter, %1.34.4
    Interommatidial angle, Δφ; deg.∼4.2∼4.7–5.5 (42)
    Acceptance angle, Δρ; deg.4.2∼4.5 (24)
    FOV, deg.180 × 60160 × 180 (43)
    Signal acquisition bandwidth, Hz300<100 (28)
    Adaptability to illuminanceYesYes (4)
    Crosstalk preventionYesYes (24)
    • deg., degree.

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Miniature curved artificial compound eyes
Dario Floreano, Ramon Pericet-Camara, Stéphane Viollet, Franck Ruffier, Andreas Brückner, Robert Leitel, Wolfgang Buss, Mohsine Menouni, Fabien Expert, Raphaël Juston, Michal Karol Dobrzynski, Geraud L’Eplattenier, Fabian Recktenwald, Hanspeter A. Mallot, Nicolas Franceschini
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2013, 110 (23) 9267-9272; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219068110

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Miniature curved artificial compound eyes
Dario Floreano, Ramon Pericet-Camara, Stéphane Viollet, Franck Ruffier, Andreas Brückner, Robert Leitel, Wolfgang Buss, Mohsine Menouni, Fabien Expert, Raphaël Juston, Michal Karol Dobrzynski, Geraud L’Eplattenier, Fabian Recktenwald, Hanspeter A. Mallot, Nicolas Franceschini
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2013, 110 (23) 9267-9272; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219068110
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