Scientists create bio-inspired robots that can mimic live fish

Biomimetic robots have been deployed alongside live animals to better understand the drivers of animal behaviour, including social cues, fear, leadership, and even courtship.

However, the encounters have always been unidirectional - the animals observe and respond to the robots.

Scientists at the New York University in the US have now developed robots that can watch back.

Researchers tapped advances in real-time tracking software and robotics to design and test the first closed-loop control system featuring a bioinspired robotic replica interacting in three dimensions with live zebrafish.

The team tested the interaction of the robotic replica and live zebrafish under several different experimental conditions, but in all cases, the replica and the live fish were separated by a transparent panel.

In preference tests, zebrafish showed greater affinity- and, importantly, no signs of anxiety or fear - toward a robotic replica that mirrored its own behaviour rather than a robot that followed a pre-set pattern of swimming.

While mirroring is a basic, limited form of social interaction, these experiments are a powerful first step toward enriching the exchange between robots and live animals.

"This form of mirroring is a very simple social behaviour, in which the replica seeks only to stay as close as possible to the live animal," said Maurizio Porfiri, professor at NYU.