Proactivity of fish and leadership of self-propelled robotic fish during interaction

Abstract

Fish interacting with biomimetic robotic fish is beneficial for animal behavior research, particularly in the study of collective behavior. Compared with passive-dragging robotic fish, self-propelled robotic fish floats in water, and its movement matches the flow field formed by the caudal fin oscillation, leading to more realistic interaction with animals. In this paper, we propose a self-propelled koi-mimicking robotic fish entity, develop a system for robotic fish and koi fish interaction, and conduct extensive experiments on quantity variation and parameter variation. The results showed that fish exhibited significantly lower proactivity when alone, and the most proactive case is one robotic fish interacting with two real fish. The experiments on parameter variation indicated that fish may respond more proactivity to robotic fish that swim with high frequency and low amplitude, but may also move together with high-frequency and high-amplitude swimming robotic fish. These findings could provide insights into fish collective behavior, guide the design of further fish-robot interaction experiments, and suggest directions for future improvements in goal-oriented robotic fish platforms.

Fish-inspired robotic algorithm: mimicking behaviour and communication of schooling fish

“…For both research groups, an overhead camera was placed above the pool to provide accurate positioning and headings of all agents and fish within the area. While Boids and the Couzin model have been around for many years, they continue to be the primary algorithms utilized for controlling robots intended for swimming alongside biological fish [8,9,62]. Nevertheless, conventional particle-based models face challenges in effectively being utilized by robots with limited perception and delays associated with sensor data [63].…”