robotmodel

BIO 406Animal Behavior: 

BIO 406 Animal Behavior Using Robots to Model Animals Maya Çakmak

Animal vs. Robot: 

Animal vs. Robot

Animal vs. Robot: 

Animal vs. Robot

Modeling: 

Modeling Mathematical (symbolic) Modeling Physical Modeling

Why Robotics?: 

Why Robotics? Interaction with same physical environment Embodiment / situatedness Better understanding through design No waste of effort to model the environment: “The world is its own best model” Parallel processes implemented more easily

The Article: 

The Article Using robots to model animals: a cricket test Barbara Webb, Robotics and Autonomous Systems “..aimed at understanding a biological sensory-motor system, and only incidentally at producing a successful robotic device.” Particular example: Phonotaxis in crickets

The Cricket: 

The Cricket Gryllus bimaculatus

Phono-taxis: 

Phono-taxis “The ability of the female cricket to find a conspecific male by walking or flying towards the ‘calling song’ the male produces.” 1. Identify correct song 2. Identify direction

Hypothesis: 

Hypothesis There is no extra mechanism to recognize the correct song, instead the mechanism that detects direction automatically rules out wrong songs.

Calling song of the cricket: 

Calling song of the cricket Chirps Syllables Sound waves

Detecting Direction: 

Detecting Direction Human has two strategies: Compare times of arrival (latency) Exploit the difference in sound pressures (firing)

Detecting Direction: 

Detecting Direction Cricket doesn’t have enough neural power to detect latency or firing directly. Instead it has directional sound receivers.

The Robot: 

The Robot

Model of direction detection: 

Model of direction detection

Experiments: 

Experiments Change: Start position Frequency Syllable rate Syllable length Chirp structure Number of speakers

Locating the source: 

Locating the source Speaker off Speaker on

Recognizing the song: 

Recognizing the song Fast Slow Different syllable rates

Choice: 

Choice Either Both

Results: 

Results Direction detection of the tracheal system can be achieved with a very simple mechanism No need for additional ‘song selection’, the mechanism is tuned for certain patterns of the song No need for a mechanism to distinguish multiple songs, the mechanism chooses the ‘best’ song

Conclusion: 

Conclusion Biology helps robotics in many ways, but it can also profit from it. Robots are well-suited to be models of animals. Do not forget limitations.

References: 

References [1] Barbara Webb, Using robots to model animals: a cricket test, Robotics and Autonomous Systems [2] Barbara Webb, What does robotics offer animal behaviour?, Animal Behavior [3] H.H. Lund, B. Webb, J. Hallam, A robot attracted to the cricket spieces Gryllus Bimaculatus, Proceedings of 4th European Conference on Artificial Life, 1997 [4] B. Webb, A cricket robot, Scientific American, 1996

The End: 

The End Any questions??