Communications of the ACM
Send in the Bots
Autonomous robots are helping scientists to make discoveries about animal behavior and cognition.
Credit: Simon Garnier/CRCA Toulouse/CNRS Phototeque
Scientists are using autonomous robots to make discoveries about animal behavior and cognition, some of which would be impossible using live animals.
Robots that mimic ants, rodents, and chickens have been studied in labs and in the environment, sometimes while interacting with animals.
"Running experiments, especially neuroscience experiments with animals, is a very costly, time-consuming process," says University of Sheffield researcher James Marshall. "There’s much less scope for curiosity-driven research there." Marshall is working on a three-year collaborative project to develop a flying robot controlled by a computer-run simulation of the honeybee brain.
Although robot-based experiments will still need to be confirmed with live animals, effective physical models can help narrow the focus of experiments that need to be performed. Because they navigate a physical space, robots offer more insight than purely computer-based approaches.
Biological questions often emerge as scientists try to engineer animal robots. For example, Marshall discovered as he worked on algorithms for the honeybee brain that knowledge of the insect's vision is minimal, and he had to rely on logical assumptions and existing knowledge of similar species.
Researchers who want to integrate their robots with live animals face the additional task of making a robot that looks, smells, and appears realistic enough to fool animals.
From The Scientist
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