Biomimetic robots promote the 3Rs Principle in animal testing

Bierbach, David; Francisco, Fritz; Lukas, Juliane; Landgraf, Tim; Maxeiner, Moritz; Romanczuk, Pawel; Musiolek, Lea; Hafner, Verena V.; Krause, Jens

doi:10.1162/isal_a_00375

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The integration of robotics with real animals will allow researchers to perform manipulative (and ethical) experiments examining group‐hunting behaviour. In these experiments, the precise movements of robotic prey (or predators) can be programmed to provide controls that are impossible with real animals (Bierbach et al ., 2021; Landgraf et al ., 2021). Recently, robotic fish have been used as prey to test how the predictability of the escape path affects predator pursuit behaviour (Szopa‐Comley & Ioannou, 2022), and robots have also been used to assess differences in social responsiveness between social partners (Bierbach et al ., 2018) and how movement variables such as speed drive patterns of collective movement (Jolles et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Behavioural Roles and Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms of group‐hunting in vertebrates

et al. 2023

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Group‐hunting is ubiquitous across animal taxa and has received considerable attention in the context of its functions. By contrast much less is known about the mechanisms by which grouping predators hunt their prey. This is primarily due to a lack of experimental manipulation alongside logistical difficulties quantifying the behaviour of multiple predators at high spatiotemporal resolution as they search, select, and capture wild prey. However, the use of new remote‐sensing technologies and a broadening of the focal taxa beyond apex predators provides researchers with a great opportunity to discern accurately how multiple predators hunt together and not just whether doing so provides hunters with a per capita benefit. We incorporate many ideas from collective behaviour and locomotion throughout this review to make testable predictions for future researchers and pay particular attention to the role that computer simulation can play in a feedback loop with empirical data collection. Our review of the literature showed that the breadth of predator:prey size ratios among the taxa that can be considered to hunt as a group is very large (<100 to >102). We therefore synthesised the literature with respect to these predator:prey ratios and found that they promoted different hunting mechanisms. Additionally, these different hunting mechanisms are also related to particular stages of the hunt (search, selection, capture) and thus we structure our review in accordance with these two factors (stage of the hunt and predator:prey size ratio). We identify several novel group‐hunting mechanisms which are largely untested, particularly under field conditions, and we also highlight a range of potential study organisms that are amenable to experimental testing of these mechanisms in connection with tracking technology. We believe that a combination of new hypotheses, study systems and methodological approaches should help push the field of group‐hunting in new directions.

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Section: Behavioural Roles and Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms of group‐hunting in vertebrates

et al. 2023

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“…Biomimetic agents can be fully controlled, allowing one to test all subjects with an identical set of cues. So, different responses from individuals are related to the intrinsic differences of focal animals and not to mutual influences between focal and stimulus individuals (Bierbach et al, 2021). Also, animal-robot interaction offers benefits as far as the welfare of the tested animals is concerned.…”

Section: Research Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Going Beyond the “Synthetic Method”: New Paradigms Cross-Fertilizing Robotics and Cognitive Neuroscience

2022

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In so-called ethorobotics and robot-supported social cognitive neurosciences, robots are used as scientific tools to study animal behavior and cognition. Building on previous epistemological analyses of biorobotics, in this article it is argued that these two research fields, widely differing from one another in the kinds of robots involved and in the research questions addressed, share a common methodology, which significantly differs from the “synthetic method” that, until recently, dominated biorobotics. The methodological novelty of this strategy, the research opportunities that it opens, and the theoretical and technological challenges that it gives rise to, will be discussed with reference to the peculiarities of the two research fields. Some broad methodological issues related to the generalization of results concerning robot-animal interaction to theoretical conclusions on animal-animal interaction will be identified and discussed.

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Technological advances for getting insight into the learning capacities of birds in the vocal domain

Derégnaucourt,

Araguas,

Guellaï

2023

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Birds produce different types of sounds in different contexts such as begging for food in youngsters, alerting to a danger, defending a territory or attracting a sexual partner. About half of the bird species are able to transform their vocalizations through imitation, improvisation or invention of sounds. Here we review the different experimental procedures that have been used to study the learning capacities of birds in the vocal domain and in the auditory domain, with a particular emphasis on recent technological developments. Nowadays, it is possible to record individual vocalizations of birds living in social groups or to record continuously the vocal ontogeny of birdsong. In conditioning experiments, new paradigms have successfully replaced food rewards with a socio-sexual reward. It is possible to engage in vocal interactions with a bird using dedicated computer systems. In both the laboratory and more recently in the field, different techniques have been used to train young oscine songbirds to learn from acoustic models. The use of virtual social environments and robots as social agents are also promising avenues. All together, these new techniques will permit researchers to explore more deeply the umwelt of bird species.

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Biomimetic robots promote the 3Rs Principle in animal testing

Cited by 3 publications

References 30 publications

Mechanisms of group‐hunting in vertebrates

Mechanisms of group‐hunting in vertebrates

Going Beyond the “Synthetic Method”: New Paradigms Cross-Fertilizing Robotics and Cognitive Neuroscience

Technological advances for getting insight into the learning capacities of birds in the vocal domain

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