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Research topics & objectives
We are a cross-disciplinary research group striving to understand the mechanisms underlying the control of natural movement and action sequences.
To this end, we study the adaptive locomotion abilities of insects with a research focus on the function of active tactile sensing (touch) and distributed proprioception (the sense of posture). Methodologically, we combine approaches from behavioural physiology (e.g., motion capture), electrophysiology (e.g., intracellular recordings) and biomimetic modeling in software and hardware.
The Department of Biological Cybernetics was founded by Holk Cruse in 1981. In 2009, it was fundamentally restructured. It is now headed by Volker Dürr.
Research-oriented student projects
Are you interested in research-oriented projects in your Bachelor's or Master's studies?
We are offering student projects and modules using various methodologies. These are always research-oriented and are related to the current research topics of our group.
Motivated students are always welcome to jour our group for project modules, research modules and thesis projects. For recent and potential future student projects please see teaching.
NEWS
04/2026 Volker Dürr is invited as a keynote-speaker to the Meeting of the „Club de Neurobiologie des Ivertébrés“ in Dijon/France (https://clubneurobiologieinvertebres.fr/meetings/)
03/2026 Thomas van der Veen, Yonathan Cohen, Elisabetta Chicca and Volker Dürr published an article on "A spiking neural network model for fractional proprioceptive encoding of limb posture and movement in insects" (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-025-01032-2)
03/2026 Tim-Philipp Lütkemeyer, Sven Bradler and Volker Dürr published an article on "A matter of antennal touch: Timing and spatial selectivity of a tactually mediated, targeted oviposition behavior" (https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.251272)
02/2026 Thomas van der Veen, Volker Dürr and Elisabetta Chicca published an article on "Encoding of movement primitives and body posture through distributed proprioception in walking and climbing insects" (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-025-01029-x)
08/2025 Merit Meschenmoser and Volker Dürr published an article on "Contrast and luminance dependence of target choice and visual orientation in walking stick insects" (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-90650-8)
spring 2025 We congratulate Maibrit Born and Henrik Wolters on successfully completing their bachelor’s degree