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Fish–Robot Interactions: Robot Fish in Animal Behavioral Studies

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Robot Fish

Part of the book series: Springer Tracts in Mechanical Engineering ((STME))

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on the use of robotic fish in animal behavior studies. Specifically, we describe the design and control of a low-cost robot along with accompanying enabling technologies for use in animal experiments. The robotic fish appearance and movement are inspired by the zebrafish animal model. The robot is capable of autonomous underwater operation. Two behavioral studies demonstrate the use of the robotic fish to test hypotheses on zebrafish social behavior. In the first study exploring zebrafish preference in a binary choice test, we find that the robot is able to elicit attraction in both individuals and small shoals when the other alternative is an empty compartment. At the same time, between conspecifics and the robot, zebrafish prefer the former, highlighting design choices that need further improvement. The second study describes the interaction between the robot and shoals of zebrafish in a free-swimming environment. The robot swims autonomously along predefined circular trajectories at three different speeds, corresponding to increasing tail-beat frequency. The robot is found to modulate zebrafish shoal cohesion, confirming expectations from the preference study result. In summary, the robotic fish platform described in this chapter provides a viable and fully controllable three-dimensional interactive tool for animal behavior experiments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The experimental procedure was approved by Polytechnic Institute of New York University (now New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering) Animal Welfare Oversight Committee AWOC-2011-101.

  2. 2.

    Experiments followed protocol numbers AWOC-2012-101 and AWOC-2013-103 that were approved by the Animal Welfare Oversight Committee of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (now New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering).

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by National Science Foundation under grants CMMI- 0745753, DGE-0741714, CMMI-1129820, and CMMI-1433670. The authors would also like to thank Giovanni Polverino, Vladislav Kopman, and Tiziana Bartolini who have contributed to the research efforts summarized in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Sachit Butail, Simone Macrì & Maurizio Porfiri

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Nicole Abaid

  3. Section of Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

    Simone Macrì

  4. Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIITD), New Delhi, India

    Sachit Butail

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  1. Sachit Butail
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  2. Nicole Abaid
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  3. Simone Macrì
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  4. Maurizio Porfiri
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Correspondence to Maurizio Porfiri .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Ruxu Du

  2. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Zheng Li

  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Kamal Youcef-Toumi

  4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Pablo Valdivia y Alvarado

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Butail, S., Abaid, N., Macrì, S., Porfiri, M. (2015). Fish–Robot Interactions: Robot Fish in Animal Behavioral Studies. In: Du, R., Li, Z., Youcef-Toumi, K., Valdivia y Alvarado, P. (eds) Robot Fish. Springer Tracts in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46870-8_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46870-8_12

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