Robots enable bees and fish to talk to each other
Robots enable bees and fish to talk to each other
by Sarah Perrin, March 21, 2019
Through an imaginative experiment, researchers were able
to get two extremely different animal species located far apart to interact
with each other and reach a shared decision with the help of robots.
Bees and fish don't often have the occasion to meet, nor
would they have much to say to each other if they did. However, under the
ASSISIbf project, engineers from EPFL and four other European universities were
able to get groups of bees and fish to communicate with each other. The bees
were located in Austria and the fish in Switzerland. Through robots, the two
species transmitted signals back and forth to each other and gradually began
coordinating their decisions. The study was published today in Science
Robotics.
"We created an unprecedented bridge between the two
animal communities, enabling them to exchange some of their dynamics,"
says Frank Bonnet, a researcher at EPFL's Mobile Robots Group (MOBOTS), which
is now part of the school's Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob). Researchers at
MOBOTS have designed robots that can blend into groups of animals and influence
their behavior. They have tested their robots on communities of cockroaches,
chicks and, more recently, fish – one of these "spy" robots was able
to infiltrate a school of fish in a circular aquarium and get them to swim in a
given direction.
For this study, engineers took the fish experiment and
went one step further, connecting the robot and school of fish with a colony of
bees in a laboratory in Graz, Austria. There the bees live on a platform with
robot terminals on each side which they naturally tend to swarm around.
Acting as a go-between
The robots within each group of animals emitted signals
specific to that species. The robot in the school of fish emitted both visual
signals – in terms of different shapes, colors and stripes – and behavioral
signals – like accelerations, vibrations and tail movements. The robots in the
bee colony emitted signals mainly in the form of vibrations, temperature
variations and air movements. Both groups of animals responded to the signals;
the fish started swimming in a given direction and the bees started swarming
around just one of the terminals. The robots in the two groups recorded the
dynamics of each group, exchanged that information with each other, and then
translated the information received into signals appropriate for the
corresponding species.
"The robots acted as if they were negotiators and
interpreters in an international conference. Through the various information
exchanges, the two groups of animals gradually came to a shared decision,"
says Francesco Mondada, a professor at BioRob.
During the experiment, the two animal species
"talked" to each other even though they were some 700 kilometers
apart. The conversation was chaotic in the beginning, but eventually led to a
certain amount of coordination. After 25 minutes, the animal groups were
synchronized – all the fish swam in a counterclockwise direction and all the
bees had swarmed around one of the terminals.
Swapping certain characteristics
"The species even started adopting some of each
other's characteristics. The bees became a little more restless and less likely
to swarm together than usual, and the fish started to group together more than
they usually would," says Bonnet.
The study's findings could help robotics engineers
develop an effective way for machines to capture and translate biological
signals. And for biologists, the study could enable them to better understand
animal behavior and how individuals within an ecosystem interact. Further out,
the research could be used to develop methods for monitoring natural habitats
by using animals' exceptional sensory capabilities. For instance, scientists
could encourage birds to avoid airports and the related dangers or direct
pollinators toward organic crops and away from crops with pesticides.
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