Scientists built a robot to help explain how a tropical bat spots insects perched on leaves using echolocation, a highly sophisticated behavior that requires precise, split-second decision-making on the part of the hunting bat. In a study published today in the Journal of Experimental Biology, a bat researcher at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute teamed up with two robotics engineers from the University of Cincinnati and the University of Antwerp, respectively, to provide the first plausible explanation for how the common big-eared bat (Micronycteris microtis) can efficiently determine whether a leaf is occupied by a silent insect amidst the dense, cluttered understory of the tropical rainforest using only sound.
