This innovative system mimics the visual capabilities of compound eyes and can be applied in a wide range of scenarios, such as installation on drones to improve their accuracy and efficiency in tasks such as irrigation or disaster relief. With its high sensitivity, the system can also enable closer collaboration between robots and other connected devices. In the long term, the compound eye system will improve the safety of autonomous driving and accelerate the adoption of intelligent transportation systems, promoting the development of smart cities.

This groundbreaking technology was developed by the team led by Prof. FAN Zhiyong, Professor at the Departments of Electronic and Computer Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering of HKUST, and represents a major leap forward in the field of biomimetic vision systems.

Traditionally, roboticists have focused primarily on replicating the visual capabilities of insects, which offer wide fields of view and advanced motion tracking capabilities. However, integrating compound eye systems into autonomous platforms such as robots or drones is challenging, as these systems often suffer from issues related to complexity and stability during deformation, geometric constraints, and potential mismatches between optical and detector components.

To address these challenges, Prof. Fan’s team developed a pinhole compound vision system by using novel materials and structures. This system has several key features, including an inherent hemispherical perovskite nanowire array imager with high pixel density to increase the field of view; and a 3D-printed lensless pinhole array with a customizable layout to regulate incident light and eliminate the blind area between adjacent ommatidia (individual units within the compound eye of an insect). Thanks to its good angle selectivity, wide field of view, broad spectral response in monocular and binocular configurations, as well as dynamic motion tracking capability, the pinhole compound eye can not only accurately locate targets, but also track a moving quadruped robot after being mounted on a drone.

Prof. Fan said: “This compound eye design is simple, light and cheap. Although it will not completely replace traditional cameras, it can provide a huge boost in certain robotics applications, such as in a swarm of drones flying in close formation. By further miniaturizing the device size and increasing the number of ommatidia, image resolution and response speed, this type of device can find broad applications in optoelectronics and robotics.”

As a renowned researcher in biomimetic optoelectronics, Prof. Fan likes to combine a practical approach with bold imagination to drive innovative research. This unique work on the compound eye marks another breakthrough in the field of vision and robotic systems after his development of the world’s first spherical artificial eye with 3D retina in 2020.

The research work was published and presented as a cover article in a leading international journal Science RoboticsDr. ZHOU Yu (postdoc), Dr. SUN Zhibo (postdoc) and DING Yucheng (PhD student) are the co-first authors, while Prof. Fan is the corresponding author.