UDELAR

The Universidad de la República (UDELAR) is the largest University in Uruguay and produces 90 % of the research in the country. Two of the most active research Institutes are the Institute of Electricity (at the School of Engineering) where Rafael Canetti leads the controls systems research team and the Institute of Biology (at the School of Sciences) Department of Biomathematics directed by Ruben Budelli . These two groups at UDELAR have been working in collaboration on electrolocation for several years. This interdisciplinary research team collaborates with researchers from other laboratories at UDELAR and has a very strong interactive collaboration with the group of Angel Caputi at the Institute of Biological Research “Clemente Estable” (IIBCE).

In ANGELS, the group at UDELAR will work on: 1) Modification of an existing model simulator of the electric image to allow the calculation of images for fish with extended electric organs and in the presence of objects with capacitive, rather than purely resistive properties. 2) The solution of the inverse problem: the calculation of different parameters of the object from the electric image in order to better understand the parameters encoded in neural representations.

Key personnel for UDELAR

Ruben Budelli is a neurophysiologist with a solid background in mathematics, physics and engineering and is founder of the Biomathematics section of the UDELAR Institute of Biology. For the last 20 years he has worked on solving problems in Neuroscience, using mathematical and computational tools. During the last 10 years he has worked on the phenomenon of perception, with a particular interest in electrosensory systems and active electrolocation. His expertise in one of the central aspects of the ANGELS project (electrolocation) and his experience in interdisciplinary research (mostly in collaboration with researchers of different backgrounds) will be especially appropriate for this project.

Rafael Canetti is an electrical engineer specializing in Systems Control. He has work on systems control in a wide variety of topics and over the past few years has produced a first-generation theoretical model of the electric fish in a 3-dimensional environment, in collaboration with R. Budelli and A. Caputi. Further development of this model will provide important tools for the exchange of biological data and engineering or mathematical concepts, necessary for the design of the robot sensory system and also to understand the formation of physical images in the biological preparation.

References

• http://www.universidad.edu.uy/index.php

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