When it comes to sensing, interacting with, learning from, and adapting to their environments, even simple biological organisms can outperform the most sophisticated digital computers. Engineers at the Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering (CNSE), however, are working to develop a new class of electronic devices with revolutionary new capabilities. These machines will be able not only to sense the world, but also to interpret and act on sensory information with the ease and flexibility of living creatures. Devices pioneered by CNSE, an NSF-supported Engineering Research Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), are already finding novel applications, ranging from devices to aid patients with spinal injuries to artificial noses to swarming robots.

The Center's approach to designing sensory systems and sensory-based behavior for machines is inspired by biology. Engineers are taking a leaf out of nature's book and developing highly specialized systems for accomplishing specific tasks. By trading off generality, the Center has been able to design systems featuring high performance, low cost, low power requirements, and potential for miniaturization. Project teams are multidisciplinary, with collaborators drawn from biology, neuroscience, and business as well as engineering.

A key CNSE goal is to create a neuromorphic engineering industry that will make machines that are not just passive tools but active helpers, and bring these enhanced devices to consumer, industrial, and military users. To this end, the Center is spinning off start-up companies (nine as of October 2002) as well as working with established companies to find ways to introduce CNSE technologies and design methodologies into their products and processes.

One notable success story has been the Center's work on neuroprosthetics, devices that help patients with spinal injuries create motion by simply thinking about it. A specially designed apparatus directly decodes signals from an area of the brain known as the premotor cortex and activates the intended motion in a robotic arm. The technology has been demonstrated in macaques, a type of monkey. NSF support, at the forefront of this basic research, has now leveraged additional project funding from other agencies, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering at Caltech developed an "artificial nose" technology that is being marketed by Cyrano Sciences, Inc. Pictured here is the Cyranose 320, a handheld artificial nose featured in an October 2001 episode of the television program CSI. The device helped crack the case of a locker room murder by identifying the kind of perfume worn by the killer

Another application is the artificial nose, a device that can analyze mixed odors, detect the presence of specific chemicals, and identify the sources of these substances. Engineered in collaboration with chemists and physiologists to mimic grasshopper olfactory systems, the technology has industrial and homeland security applications. It is marketed by Cyrano Sciences, Inc.

A third area of CNSE research is collective robotics, in which swarms of robots combine sensory information to form networks of sensory capability, which can be used to accomplish certain tasks more efficiently than by independent operation. Military applications of this technology include small, agile, birdlike aircraft that could be ideal for unmanned low-altitude reconnaissance missions.

For more information, contact Bob Carroll, Managing Director, at bcarroll@cnse.caltech.edu , (626) 395-8785.