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Infiltrating the zebrafish swarm: design, implementation and experimental tests of a miniature robotic fish lure for fish–robot interaction studies

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Abstract

Robotic fish are nowadays developed for various types of research, such as bio-inspiredrobotics, biomimetics and animal behavior studies. In the context of our research on the social interactions of the zebrafish Danio Rerio, we developed a miniature robotic fish lure for direct underwater interaction with the living fish. This remotely controlled and waterproof device has a total length of 7.5 cm with the same size ratio as zebrafish and is able to beat its tail with different frequencies and amplitudes, while following the group of living animals using a mobile robot moving outside water that is coupled with the robotic lure using magnets. The robotic lure is also equipped with a rechargeable battery and can be used autonomously underwater for experiments of up to 1 h. We performed experiments with the robot moving inside an aquarium with living fish to analyze its impact on the zebrafish behavior. We found that the beating rate of the tail increased the attractiveness of the lure among the zebrafish shoal. We also demonstrated that the lure could influence a collective decision of the zebrafish shoal, the swimming direction, when moving with a constant linear speed inside a circular corridor. This new robotic fish design and the experimental results are promising for the field of fish–robot interaction.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the EU-ICT project ASSISIbf, No. 601074. The information provided is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not reflect the European Commissions opinion. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that might be made of data appearing in this publication. We also thank Daniel Burnier and Norbert Crot (LSRO) for the technical support during RiBot design and production.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robotic Systems Laboratory, School of Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, ME B3 30, Station 9, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Frank Bonnet, Yuta Kato & Francesco Mondada

  2. Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Energies de Demain, Université Paris Diderot VII, Sorbonne Paris Cité, LIED, UMR 8235, 75205, Paris, France

    José Halloy

Authors
  1. Frank Bonnet
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  2. Yuta Kato
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  3. José Halloy
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  4. Francesco Mondada
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frank Bonnet.

Additional information

This work was presented in part at the 1st International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics, Kyoto, Japan, October 28–30, 2015.

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Bonnet, F., Kato, Y., Halloy, J. et al. Infiltrating the zebrafish swarm: design, implementation and experimental tests of a miniature robotic fish lure for fish–robot interaction studies. Artif Life Robotics 21, 239–246 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-016-0291-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-016-0291-8

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