Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan

Mandyam Veerambudi Srinivasan AM FRS is an Indian-born Australian biologist who studies visual systems particularly those of bees and birds.

A faculty member at the University of Queensland, he is a recipient of the Prime Minister's Prize for Science and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society (elected 2001).

Education

• 1968 - Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Bangalore University, India
• 1970 - Master's degree in Applied Electronics and Servo mechanisms, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
• 1973 - M.Phil. in Engineering and Applied Science, Yale University
• 1977 - PhD in Engineering and Applied Science, Yale University
• 1994 - DSc in Neuroethology, Australian National University

Research interests

Focusing his attention on bees, Srinivasan has explored how simple animal systems display complex behaviours. This broad field has applications in robotics, especially unmanned aerial vehicles because of the competing needs for autonomy and a lightweight control system.

Bees are highly competent fliers. Srinivasan has shown that many ostensibly complex flight behaviours can be attributed to the tendency of the bee to keep optic flow constant. Some examples:

• They measure the distance they have travelled. This is important as distance is signalled to other bees as a component of the waggle dance.
• When landing, the ground becomes closer and therefore appears to be moving faster. By keeping the apparent velocity of the ground constant, the bee reduces its own velocity in a continuous manner.
• Similarly, bees slow down in a crowded landscape because nearby objects appear to move faster than objects on the horizon. This is a safety mechanism that reduces the incidence of collision.
• When avoiding objects, the bee will tend to take the optimal path because it will 'balance' the rate of the optic flow between the eyes. It will, for example, fly down the middle of a tunnel, because if it flew closer to one side the optic flow would appear to be greater.