Active tactile exploration - How specific morphologies and mechanosensory structures lead to functionally useful sensing in both biology and artificial systems

Objective

Navigating over complex and varying terrain is a fundamental challenge that animals tackle with ease, but even state-of-the-art robots struggle to achieve. Reverse-engineering animal sensorimotor control and active tactile sensing can provide crucial insights for designing autonomous robots and smart prosthetics. Unraveling these mechanisms is challenging because neural processing via mechanosensors and body structures (known as morphological intelligence) are tightly coupled. This project will study how animals gather information about the environment through touch, using Drosophila. In particular, it will uncover how leg mechanosensors and leg morphologies work together to enable robust tactile exploration. First, I will identify which leg mechanosensors and segments enable flies to detect and navigate obstacles. By quantifying 3D limb kinematics during obstacle encounters and using optogenetic activation of specific mechanosensory neurons, I will reveal how individual sensors and leg mechanics drive real-time obstacle detection and avoidance. Second, I will elucidate how mechanical interactions are encoded in neuronal activity. By recording population activity of mechanosensory neurons using two-photon calcium imaging during controlled mechanical stimulation, I will uncover how the spatial arrangement and co-activation of leg bristles encode tactile information. Finally, to evaluate how mechanosensor morphologies and arrangement enhance tactile sensing, I will fabricate artificial mechanosensors to systematically compare configurations and reveal how sensor geometry and alignment improve spatial and directional encoding. This project will pioneer a new understanding of how morphological intelligence contributes to environmental sensing and navigation. It will advance our knowledge of sensory encoding in animals and inform the design of bioinspired tactile sensors that go beyond the state of the art in robotics.