“The robots acted as if they were negotiators and interpreters in an international conference. Through the various information exchanges, the two groups of animals gradually came to a shared decision,” said Francesco Mondada of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, one of the researchers on the cleverly-named ASSISIbf experiment.
The Austrian bees synced up their behavior with Swiss fish by communicating through robot “translators,” which allowed the two species to understand each other’s behaviors and soon had them moving in a similar fashion. Previously, the experimental robots had only been sent in to infiltrate single-species animal groups in order to influence their behavior, blending in with unsuspecting clusters of cockroaches and chicks.
The researchers had already perfected using the bots to convince a school of fish to swim in a chosen direction by replicating their behavioral signals – tail movements, accelerations, and vibrations – and visual signals – colors, stripes, and shapes – in a previous experiment. Meanwhile, the bee-bots controlled their compatriots through vibrations, temperature variations, and air movements.'...read more>>>...