Interactive biorobotics

Datteri, Edoardo

doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02533-2

Cited by 14 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Technological advances are greatly innovating animal experiments by allowing for new ways of observation (Dell et al 2014) and how we can manipulate or control an animal's environments (Ioannou et al 2012, Butail et al 2015, Chouinard-Thuly et al 2017, Katsnelson 2018, Romano et al 2018, Datteri 2020. This includes new methods like video animations and virtual realities as well as biomimetic robots.…”

Section: Biomimetic Robots and Animal Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetic robots promote the 3Rs Principle in animal testing

Bierbach¹,

Francisco²,

Lukas³

et al. 2021

The 2021 Conference on Artificial Life

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In order to strengthen animal welfare, many countries require that experimenters follow the '3Rs Principle' when designing animal experiments. The 3Rs call for a reduction in the number of animals used, the refinement of methods to reduce stress as well as the full replacement of animals in experimentation through alternative methods. Biomimetic robots that resemble live animals and allow for natural-like interactions represent a valuable tool to achieve the 3Rs' objectives. On the basis of our research with a robotic fish that is accepted as a conspecific by live poeciliid fishes, we highlight how biomimetic robots can reduce the number of animals tested by (a) substituting live animals, (b) providing highly standardized cues, and (c) reducing overall stress for live animals during tests through less handling.

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Section: Biomimetic Robots and Animal Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetic robots promote the 3Rs Principle in animal testing

Bierbach¹,

Francisco²,

Lukas³

et al. 2021

The 2021 Conference on Artificial Life

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“…How to evaluate the validity of interactive biorobotics studies? Few methodological analyses of this methodology have been carried out so far (Mitri et al, 2013 ; Datteri, 2020 ). By reconstructing the logic of interactive biorobotics, this section will offer a provisional and non-exhaustive checklist of questions that may guide validity evaluation.…”

Section: The Validity Of Interactive Biorobotics Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To justify this logical step, which is unique to distal studies, one must reflect on the relationship between the robot and the living system “replaced” by the robot. More specifically, as represented in Figure 6 , one must reflect on the relationship between P R and P L , on the one hand, and between the background characteristics of the robot R and the characteristics of the living system L replaced by the robot, on the other hand (Datteri, 2020 ).…”

Section: The Validity Of Interactive Biorobotics Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Logic of Interactive Biorobotics

Datteri

2020

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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In recent studies, robots are used to stimulate living systems in controlled experimental settings. This research strategy is here called interactive biorobotics, to distinguish it from classical biorobotics, in which robots are used to simulate, rather than to stimulate, living system behavior. This article offers a methodological analysis of interactive biorobotics and has two goals. The first one is to argue that interactive biorobotics is methodologically different, in some important respects, from classical biorobotics and from countless instances of model-based science. It will be shown that interactive biorobotics does not conform to the so-called "understanding by building" approach or synthetic method, and that it illustrates a novel use of models in science. The second goal is to reflect on the logic of interactive biorobotics. A distinction will be made between two classes of studies, which will be called "proximal" and "distal." In proximal studies, experiments involving robot-animal interaction are brought to bear on theoretical hypotheses on robot-animal interaction. In distal studies, experiments involving robot-animal interaction are brought to bear on theoretical hypotheses on animal-animal interaction. Distal studies involve logical steps which may be particularly hard to justify. This distinction, together with a methodological reflection on the relationship between the context in which the experiments are carried out and the context in which the conclusions are expected to hold, will lead to a checklist of questions which may be useful to justify and evaluate the validity of interactive biorobotics studies. The reconstruction of the logic of interactive biorobotics made here, though preliminary, may contribute to justifying the important role that robots, as tool for stimulating living systems, can play in the contemporary life sciences.

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“…Recent advances in the field of robotics now make it possible to combine the strengths of agent-based models and behavioural experiments, with robotic individuals behaving like realistic-looking conspecifics and interacting naturally with live animals [16][17][18]. Here we present results from experiments using live guppies (Poecilia reticulata) that were swimming with an interactive biomimetic fish-like robot ('robofish') to examine the role of animal's individual movement speed on collective behavioural patterns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Group-level patterns emerge from individual speed as revealed by an extremely social robotic fish

Jolles

Weimar

Landgraf

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Understanding the emergence of collective behaviour has long been a key research focus in the natural sciences. Besides the fundamental role of social interaction rules, a combination of theoretical and empirical work indicates individual speed may be a key process that drives the collective behaviour of animal groups. Socially-induced changes in speed by interacting animals make it difficult to isolate the effects of individual speed on group-level behaviours.Here we tackled this issue by pairing guppies with a biomimetic robot. We used a closed-loop tracking and feedback system to let a robotic fish naturally interact with a live partner in real time, and programmed it to strongly copy and follow its partner's movements while lacking any preferred movement speed or directionality of its own. We show that individual differences in guppies' movement speed were highly repeatable and shaped key collective patterns: higher individual speeds resulted in stronger leadership, lower cohesion, higher alignment, and better temporal coordination in the pairs. By combining the strengths of individual-based models and observational work with state-of-the-art robotics, we provide novel evidence that individual speed is a key, fundamental process in the emergence of collective behaviour.

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Interactive biorobotics

Cited by 14 publications

References 35 publications

Biomimetic robots promote the 3Rs Principle in animal testing

Biomimetic robots promote the 3Rs Principle in animal testing

The Logic of Interactive Biorobotics

Group-level patterns emerge from individual speed as revealed by an extremely social robotic fish

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