Download - On Manipulating Attractors In Collective Behaviours Of Bio-hybrid Societies With Robot Interactions
On manipulating attractors in collective behaviours of bio-hybrid societies
with robot interactionsRob Mills1, Luís Correia1, Thomas Schmickl2
BioISI, Faculty of Sciences, Universidade de Lisboa
Artificial Life Lab, Faculty of Zoology, Karl-Franzens University Graz
Collective animals and human interaction• Human activities interact with animals
• Agriculture, aquaculture
• Pollination services (esp. honeybees)
• Swarming locusts
• Can we manipulate how they act?• goods (bees=> pollinators) and
• bads (mosquitos=>disease)
• Lots of these animals exhibit collective behaviour• Sheep, cows, chickens• Bees, locusts, midges
Robo-ethology: social interactions using robots• A line of research with roots in ethology
• More direct than pure observation, stronger isolation of triggers
Partan et al 2009 Anim behav 77(5)Michelsen 1992 Behav ecol & sociobiol 30(3-4)
Taylor 2008 Animal behaviour 76(3)
Closing the loop
• Continuous immersion of robot in animal society
Vaughan et al 2000 Robot autonsyst 31(1)
Robot exploits the fear response -> gather the birds together
-> able to herd the ducks(move them to specified goal)
Closing the loop
• Continuous immersion of robot in animal society
Butler et al 2006 Int J. Robotics res 25(5-6)
Robot induces stress in some animals exploits the fear response -> cows move together; stressed signal shared
-> able to control position of cow herd
Bio-hybrid societies
• Continuous immersion of robot in animal society
Halloy et al 2007 Science 318(5853)
Robot is socially integrated: accepted as a cockroach
a) Robots programmed with behaviour like cockroach;
b) Substitute a few, and the animals still reach same decision
-> social acceptance; not fear here
Bio-hybrid societies – Agent provocateur
• Continuous immersion of robot in animal society
Halloy et al 2007 Science 318(5853)
Robot is socially integrated: accepted as a cockroach
c) Robots programmed with new environmental preference
d) A few robots can override the expected environmental preference
-> exploit social factors in cockroach to change collective outcome
Robots (prefer light shelter) + cockroaches
Just cockroaches
Steering a collective systemat
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Self-amplification
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Robots with alternate
preference
Steering a collective systemat
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Robots with alternate
preference
• Efficiency: we didn’t invent a new behaviour; • rather, we modified the location of
attractor.
• Social amplification of signals • minority of robots exert sufficient
influence
• Or didn’t need to interfere with every animal
Bio-hybrid societies – closing the loop
•
• Behavioural study, with controllable interactions (long-term) to test hypotheses (e.g., what influences mating success)
• Create societies that have new functionality, ‘best of’ machine & animal
• (not: cyborgs; invasive to individuals.)
Exploit gaggle response to fear
Exploit herd response to stress
Exploit importance of social cohesion
(overriding env. factors)
Exploit filial imprinting (for social acceptance)
MORE complex societies!
• ASSISI|bf research project is about multi-species bio-hybrid societies, with bees and with fish (honey, zebra). Stripes
• Animals do not normally share habitats; can we bridge the link with robots?
An unworkable idea?
• If we are able to introduce novel interactions between species, via robots, • Original idea:
• Could we substitute a species lost from an ecosystem?
• crucial interactions that were maybe unavailable to the “substitute” could be provided by robot links?
• (non-trophic interspecies interactions – help!)
• More workable? Could one species be used to regulate another?• When is a virtual fence deployed?
• When should bees (not) exit hive?
Outlook: Non-invasive control/influence
• Potential applications
• Immersive monitoring, early warning of poor health• unexpected social dynamic
• Manipulate when bees swarm • [not whether they do]
• Encourage birds to flock in locations far from airports• [note bird of prey approach effective]
• Virtual fences, used in conservation ecology & farming
• Dynamic / selective; potentially cheaper in vast spaces
• Keep locusts in their solitary phase, out of gregarious phase.
• Improve FADs? Make them more species-specific to reduce by-catch• Again, could be predator fear based
approach
Outlook
• Bio-hybrid societies where robots have continuous interaction with collective animals• Manipulate collective behaviours, by nudging / exploiting the social factors
and feeding a society new information from robots
• Opportunities to steer, without excessive force or effort
• Problems? • Effort involved in identifying interaction points in each new species
• Unexpected, pathological attractors.
• Unintended consequences from meddling in ecosystems… [though at least successful robots won’t reproduce]
references