Abstract
The possibility of integrating bioinspired robots in groups of live social animals may constitute a valuable tool to study the basis of social behavior and uncover the fundamental determinants of animal functions and dysfunctions. In this study, we investigate the interactions between individual golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) and robotic fish swimming together in a water tunnel at constant flow velocity. The robotic fish is designed to mimic its live counterpart in the aspect ratio, body shape, dimension, and locomotory pattern. Fish positional preference with respect to the robot is experimentally analyzed as the robot's color pattern and tail-beat frequency are varied. Behavioral observations are corroborated by particle image velocimetry studies aimed at investigating the flow structure behind the robotic fish. Experimental results show that the time spent by golden shiners in the vicinity of the bioinspired robotic fish is the highest when the robot mimics their natural color pattern and beats its tail at the same frequency. In these conditions, fish tend to swim at the same depth of the robotic fish, where the wake from the robotic fish is stronger and hydrodynamic return is most likely to be effective.
Highlights
Thousands of fish species are known to aggregate at some stage of their life cycle in organized social groups commonly referred to as ‘‘shoals’’ [1,2,3]
The particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiment showed that the wake induced by the tailbeat of the robotic fish consists of a staggered array of trailing discrete vortices of alternating sign, as in [64,65]
Our results show that fish positional preference is affected by the color of the robotic fish, whereby a prototype with a bioinspired color pattern (Gray robot) is more attractive than a red replica (Red robot)
Summary
Thousands of fish species are known to aggregate at some stage of their life cycle in organized social groups commonly referred to as ‘‘shoals’’ [1,2,3]. The coordinated phenomenon of ‘‘schooling’’ is the macroscopic result of a complex transmission of signals within the shoal, in which fish tend to maintain uniform polarization and cohesion in nearly crystallized swimming formations [1,12] Such collective behavior is mediated by the integrated physiological system of muscles [13], organs, and senses that has evolved at the individual level as a valid alternative to living solitarily [1,14,15]. While it is generally accepted that several sensory cues are utilized by schooling fish to perceive their environment [16] and interact with their conspecifics [17], the quantification of the relative contribution of such cues is yet to be fully understood for several species [9,15,18,19,20,21,22] In this context, the use of live stimuli in laboratory experiments only permits minimal flexibility for controlling and dissecting specific behavioral responses. Robotics has been recently proposed as a viable means for enabling hypothesis-driven research in animal behavior, whereby robotic devices can be integrated into animal systems to serve as fully controllable and consistent experimental tools [24,25,26]
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