Encoding lateralization of jump kinematics and eye use in a locust via bio-robotic artifacts

Abstract

The effect of previous exposure to lateral sensory stimuli in shaping the response to subsequent symmetric stimuli represents an important overlooked issue in neuroethology, with special reference to arthropods. In this research, we investigated the hypothesis to 'programme' jumping escape direction as well as surveillance orientation in young and adult individuals of Locusta migratoria as an adaptive consequence of prior exposure to directional-biased predator approaches generated by a robotic leopard gecko representing Eublepharis macularius. The manipulation of the jumping escape direction was successfully achieved in young locusts, although young L. migratoria did not exhibit innately lateralized jumping escapes. Jumping escape direction was also successfully manipulated in adult locusts, which exhibited innate lateralized jumping escape at the individual level. The innate lateralization of each instar of L. migratoria in using a preferential eye during surveillance was not affected by prior lateralized exposure to the robotic gecko. Our results indicate a high plasticity of the escape motor outputs that are occurring almost in real time with the perceived stimuli, making them greatly adaptable and compliant to environmental changes in order to be effective and reliable. In addition, surveillance lateralization innately occurs at population level in each instar of L. migratoria. Therefore, its low forgeability by environmental factors would avoid disorganization at swarm level and improve swarm coordination during group tasks. These findings are consistent with the fact that, as in vertebrates, in insects the right hemisphere is specialized in controlling fear and escape functions.

Motor Imagery Based Continuous Teleoperation Robot Control with Tactile Feedback

“…In the past, a variety of studies focused on living organisms interaction with robotic cues [31][32][33][34] and controlling the robot through BCI, but there have been few research on the control of teleoperation robot based on motor imagery EEG. Meanwhile, most of the previous research groups focus on the conventional two class or four class classification from EEG signals to get one or four control commands.…”

A Comparison of Individual Learning and Social Learning in Zebrafish Through an Ethorobotics Approach

“…Previous work has shown that robots can be used to influence the response of animal in longitudinal studies with sequential exposure to robotic stimuli. For example, Locusts (Locusta migratoria) learned to escape preferentially on a side, following exposure to a robotic Gecko coming from the opposite side (Romano et al, 2019b). In our case, the robot is used to proxy a trained conspecific that acts as a demonstrator in a social learning task, while in the study by Romano et al (2019b) a robotic predator served as aversive stimulus to condition the subjects spatially.…”

“…For example, Locusts (Locusta migratoria) learned to escape preferentially on a side, following exposure to a robotic Gecko coming from the opposite side (Romano et al, 2019b). In our case, the robot is used to proxy a trained conspecific that acts as a demonstrator in a social learning task, while in the study by Romano et al (2019b) a robotic predator served as aversive stimulus to condition the subjects spatially. Our experimental paradigm could serve as inspiration to design similar studies in other species.…”

Design, Optimization, and Experiment on a Bioinspired Jumping Robot with a Six-Bar Leg Mechanism Based on Jumping Stability

“…us, it was imitated in this work. Locusts can not only jump forward but also jump laterally [50]. In this paper, only the jumping of locust in a plane is studied.…”