A modified model for the Lobula Giant Movement Detector and its FPGA implementation

Bio-inspired vision sensors are particularly appropriate candidates for navigation of vehicles or mobile robots due to their computational simplicity, allowing compact hardware implementations with low power dissipation. The Lobula Giant Movement Detector (LGMD) is a wide-field visual neuron located in the Lobula layer of the Locust nervous system. The LGMD increases its firing rate in response to both the velocity of an approaching object and the proximity of this object. It has been found that it can respond to looming stimuli very quickly and trigger avoidance reactions. It has been successfully applied in visual collision avoidance systems for vehicles and robots. This paper introduces a modified neural model for LGMD that provides additional depth direction information for the movement. The proposed model retains the simplicity of the previous model by adding only a few new cells. It has been simplified and implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), taking advantage o...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: CVIU
• Authors: Hongying Meng, Kofi Appiah, Shigang Yue, Andrew Hunter, Mervyn Hobden, Nigel Priestley, Peter Hobden, Cy Pettit
• Keywords: CVIU 2010, Field Programmable Gate Array, Giant Movement Detector, Wide-field Visual Neuron