A robot controlled by a simulated rat brain has proved itself to be a remarkable mimic of rodent behaviour in series of classic animal experiments.
The robot鈥檚 biologically-inspired control software uses a functional model of 鈥減lace cells鈥�. These are neurons in an area of the brain called the hippocampus that help real rats to map their environment. They fire when an animal is in a familiar location.
Alfredo Weitzenfeld, a roboticist at the ITAM technical institute in Mexico City, carried out the work by reprogramming an AIBO robot dog, made by Japanese firm Sony, with the rat-inspired control software.
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When placed inside a maze, the robot learnt to navigate towards a 鈥渞eward鈥� in a remarkably similar way to real rodents, using landmarks to explore.
Rat in a maze
Weitzenfeld found that the robot could recognise places it had already visited, distinguish between locations that looked alike, and figure out roughly where it was when placed in an unfamiliar part of a maze, after just a single training session.
鈥淥ur work is unique in that we are trying to reproduce with robots actual experiments carried out on rats,鈥� Weitzenfeld told 快猫短视频.
The robot鈥檚 tasks were set up to replicate experiments from the 1980s. These were designed to shed light on how spatial problems are solved neurologically.
Weitzenfeld is also working closely with neuroscientists who are experimenting with real rats. 鈥淥ur goal is to extend our current models by testing new hypotheses in robots,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd by performing corresponding new experiments with real rats that may lead to further understandings in rat spatial memory and learning.鈥�
New approaches
One of the challenges in robot navigation is to enable machines to create maps of their surrounding environment, while working out their location at the same time 鈥� a challenge known as simultaneous localisation and mapping or SLAM (see Uncharted territory).
鈥淲e believe this work will also inspire, in due time, new robotic approaches to SLAM and learning in robots,鈥� Weitzenfeld adds.
Chris Melhuish, director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory says that, while other researchers have performed similar experiments in simulation, these are the first tests to be carried in real environments.
This could make a big difference when it comes to making more robust control software for robots, he says (see Guessing robots navigate faster.
Weitzenfeld agrees. 鈥淭his increases the complexity, but gives us a better understanding of the true complexity found in real and artificial systems,鈥� he says.
