Robots in the service of animal behavior

Klein, Barrett Anthony; Stein, Joey; Taylor, Rabun

doi:10.4161/cib.21304

Cited by 42 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…As predicted, significant differences were obtained testing different combination of cues, highlighting the communication functions that visual cues, sent by the fish replica, and how much their changes/overlapping affect specific action patterns 35, 56, 60 . In agreement with other researches 61, 62 , our observations revealed that the B .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Multiple cues produced by a robotic fish modulate aggressive behaviour in Siamese fighting fishes

Romano

Benelli

Donati

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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The use of robotics to establish social interactions between animals and robots, represents an elegant and innovative method to investigate animal behaviour. However, robots are still underused to investigate high complex and flexible behaviours, such as aggression. Here, Betta splendens was tested as model system to shed light on the effect of a robotic fish eliciting aggression. We evaluated how multiple signal systems, including a light stimulus, affect aggressive responses in B. splendens. Furthermore, we conducted experiments to estimate if aggressive responses were triggered by the biomimetic shape of fish replica, or whether any intruder object was effective as well. Male fishes showed longer and higher aggressive displays as puzzled stimuli from the fish replica increased. When the fish replica emitted its full sequence of cues, the intensity of aggression exceeded even that produced by real fish opponents. Fish replica shape was necessary for conspecific opponent perception, evoking significant aggressive responses. Overall, this study highlights that the efficacy of an artificial opponent eliciting aggressive behaviour in fish can be boosted by exposure to multiple signals. Optimizing the cue combination delivered by the robotic fish replica may be helpful to predict escalating levels of aggression.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Multiple cues produced by a robotic fish modulate aggressive behaviour in Siamese fighting fishes

Romano

Benelli

Donati

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…Answers to questions so elaborately proposed by Wells (1977) in the light of vocal signalling activity during social behaviour and behavioural ecology have filled textbooks (Ryan 1985; Gerhardt and Huber 2002; Narins et al 2007) and further inspired groundbreaking research on acoustic communication systems (reviewed in Bee et al 2013) leading from the “matched filter hypothesis” (Capranica and Moffat 1983; Gerhardt and Schwarz 2001) to the use of robotic frogs to study signal function (e.g. Narins et al 2003; Klein et al 2012). Today’s biological research has started to look at the big picture and integrates several sensory modalities, communication behaviour, environmental influences, perceptual biases and mechanisms of the species under investigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From uni- to multimodality: towards an integrative view on anuran communication

2014

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Undeniably, acoustic signals are the predominant mode of communication in frogs and toads. Acoustically active species are found throughout the vast diversity of anuran families. However, additional or alternative signal modalities have gained increasing attention. In several anurans, seismic, visual and chemical communications have convergently evolved due to ecological constraints such as noisy environments. The production of a visual cue, like the inevitably moving vocal sac of acoustically advertising males, is emphasized by conspicuously coloured throats. Limb movements accompanied by dynamic displays of bright colours are additional examples of striking visual signals independent of vocalizations. In some multimodal anuran communication systems, the acoustic component acts as an alert signal, which alters the receiver attention to the following visual display. Recent findings of colourful glands on vocal sacs, producing volatile species-specific scent bouquets suggest the possibility of integration of acoustic, visual and chemical cues in species recognition and mate choice. The combination of signal components facilitates a broadened display repertoire in challenging environmental conditions. Thus, the complexity of the communication systems of frogs and toads may have been underestimated.

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“…The recent developments in free moving VR systems have opened doors for conducting new types of studies in collective behavior and social behavior, with developers of self-organizing robots already using the theories developed in collective behavior studies [78,85]. The robotics community is actively involved in development of new methods for studying behavior using interactive robots [45,47,50,84].…”

Section: Growing Support From Robotics and Computer Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animals in Virtual Environments

Naik

Bastien

Navab

et al. 2020

IEEE Trans. Visual. Comput. Graphics

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The core idea in an XR (VR/MR/AR) application is to digitally stimulate one or more sensory systems (e.g. visual, auditory, olfactory) of the human user in an interactive way to achieve an immersive experience. Since the early 2000s biologists have been using Virtual Environments (VE) to investigate the mechanisms of behavior in non-human animals including insects, fish, and mammals. VEs have become reliable tools for studying vision, cognition, and sensory-motor control in animals. In turn, the knowledge gained from studying such behaviors can be harnessed by researchers designing biologically inspired robots, smart sensors, and multi-agent artificial intelligence. VE for animals is becoming a widely used application of XR technology but such applications have not previously been reported in the technical literature related to XR. Biologists and computer scientists can benefit greatly from deepening interdisciplinary research in this emerging field and together we can develop new methods for conducting fundamental research in behavioral sciences and engineering. To support our argument we present this review which provides an overview of animal behavior experiments conducted in virtual environments.Index Terms-animal behavior, VR for animals, mechanism of behavior, interactive experiments, closed-loop

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Robots in the service of animal behavior

Cited by 42 publications

References 56 publications

Multiple cues produced by a robotic fish modulate aggressive behaviour in Siamese fighting fishes

Multiple cues produced by a robotic fish modulate aggressive behaviour in Siamese fighting fishes

From uni- to multimodality: towards an integrative view on anuran communication

Animals in Virtual Environments

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