Author :
Wiles, Jeremy ; Heath, Stuart ; Ball, David ; Quinn, Laurie ; Chiba, Akira
Author_Institution :
Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Abstract :
Biorobotics has the potential to provide an integrated understanding from neural systems to behavior that is neither ethical nor technically feasible with living systems. Robots that can interact with animals in their natural environment open new possibilities for empirical studies in neuroscience. However, designing a robot that can interact with a rodent requires considerations that span a range of disciplines. For the rat´s safety, the body form and movements of the robot need to take into consideration the safety of the animal, an appropriate size for the rodent arenas, and behaviors for interaction. For the robot´s safety, its form must be robust in the face of typically inquisitive and potentially aggressive behaviors by the rodent, which can include chewing on exposed parts, including electronics, and deliberate or accidental fouling. We designed a rat-sized robot, the iRat (intelligent rat animat technology) for studies in neuroscience. The iRat is about the same size as a rat and has the ability to navigate autonomously around small environments. In this study we report the first interactions between the iRat and real rodents in a free exploration task. Studies with five rats show that the rats and iRat interact safely for both parties.
Keywords :
biomimetics; mobile robots; navigation; neurophysiology; accidental fouling; animal safety; autonomous navigation; biorobotics; deliberate fouling; electronics; exposed part chewing; free exploration task; iRat; intelligent rat animat technology; interaction behavior; neural system; neuroscience; rat safety; rat-sized robot; robot body form; robot design; robot interaction; robot movement; robot safety; rodent arena; rodent inquisitive behavior; rodent potentially aggressive behavior; Navigation; Neuroscience; Rats; Robots; Rodents; Tracking; bio-robotics; rodent-robot interactions;
Conference_Titel :
Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL), 2012 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-4964-2
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4673-4963-5
DOI :
10.1109/DevLrn.2012.6400870