Beam me up: Researchers use 'behavioral teleporting' to study social interactions

Date:
August 24, 2020
Source:
NYU Tandon School of Engineering
Summary:
Researchers have devised a novel approach to getting physically
separated fish to interact with each other, leading to insights
about what kinds of cues influence social behavior.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Teleporting is a science fiction trope often associated with Star
Trek. But a different kind of teleporting is being explored at the NYU
Tandon School of Engineering, one that could let researchers investigate
the very basis of social behavior, study interactions between invasive
and native species to preserve natural ecosystems, explore predator/prey relationship without posing a risk to the welfare of the animals, and
even fine-tune human/robot interfaces.


==========================================================================
The team, led by Maurizio Porfiri, Institute Professor at NYU Tandon,
devised a novel approach to getting physically separated fish to interact
with each other, leading to insights about what kinds of cues influence
social behavior.

The innovative system, called "behavioral teleporting" -- the transfer
of the complete inventory of behaviors and actions (ethogram) of a
live zebrafish onto a remotely located robotic replica -- allowed the investigators to independently manipulate multiple factors underpinning
social interactions in real-time. The research, "Behavioral teleporting
of individual ethograms onto inanimate robots: experiments on social interactions in live zebrafish," appears in the Cell Press journal
iScience.

The team, including Mert Karakaya, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NYU Tandon, and Simone Macri` of
the Centre for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore
di Sanita`, Rome, devised a setup consisting of two separate tanks, each containing one fish and one robotic replica. Within each tank, the live
fish of the pair swam with the zebrafish replica matching the morphology
and locomotory pattern of the live fish located in the other tank.

An automated tracking system scored each of the live subjects' locomotory patterns, which were, in turn, used to control the robotic replica
swimming in the other tank via an external manipulator. Therefore,
the system allowed the transfer of the complete ethogram of each fish
across tanks within a fraction of a second, establishing a complex robotics-mediated interaction between two remotely-located live
animals. By independently controlling the morphology of these robots,
the team explored the link between appearance and movements in social
behavior.

The investigators found that the replica teleported the fish motion
in almost all trials (85% of the total experimental time), with a 95%
accuracy at a maximum time lag of less than two-tenths of a second. The
high accuracy in the replication of fish trajectory was confirmed by
equivalent analysis on speed, turn rate, and acceleration.



========================================================================== Porfiri explained that the behavioral teleporting system avoids the
limits of typical modeling using robots.

"Since existing approaches involve the use of a mathematical
representation of social behavior for controlling the movements of
the replica, they often lead to unnatural behavioral responses of live animals," he said. "But because behavioral teleporting 'copy/pastes' the behavior of a live fish onto robotic proxies, it confers a high degree
of precision with respect to such factors as position, speed, turn rate,
and acceleration." Porfiri's previous research proving robots are viable
as behavior models for zebrafish showed that schools of zebrafish could
be made to follow the lead of their robotic counterparts.

"In humans, social behavior unfolds in actions, habits, and practices
that ultimately define our individual life and our society," added
Macri`. "These depend on complex processes, mediated by individual
traits -- baldness, height, voice pitch, and outfit, for example -- and behavioral feedback, vectors that are often difficult to isolate. This
new approach demonstrates that we canisolate influences on the quality
of social interaction and determine which visual features really
matter." The research included experiments to understand the asymmetric relationship between large and small fish and identify leader/follower
roles, in which a large fish swam with a small replica that mirrored the behavior of the small fish positioned in the other tank and vice-versa.



========================================================================== Karakaya said the team was surprised to find that the smaller -- not
larger - - fish "led" the interactions.

"There are no strongly conclusive results on why that could be, but one
reason might be due to the 'curious' nature of the smaller individuals to explore a novel space," he said. "In known environments, large fish tend
to lead; however, in new environments larger and older animals can be
cautious in their approach, whereas the smaller and younger ones could
be 'bolder.'" The method also led to the discovery that interaction
between fish was not determined by locomotor patterns alone, but also
by appearance.

"It is interesting to see that, as is the case with our own species, there
is a relationship between appearance and social interaction," he added.

Karakaya added that this could serve as an important tool for human interactions in the near future, whereby, through the closed-loop
teleporting, people could use robots as proxies of themselves.

"One example would be the colonies on Mars, where experts from Earth
could use humanoid robots as an extension of themselves to interact
with the environment and people there. This would provide easier and
more accurate medical examination, improve human contact, and reduce
isolation. Detailed studies on the behavioral and psychological effects of these proxies must be completed to better understand how these techniques
can be implemented into daily life." This work was supported by the
National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
NYU_Tandon_School_of_Engineering. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Mert Karakaya, Simone Macri`, Maurizio Porfiri. Behavioral
Teleporting of
Individual Ethograms onto Inanimate Robots: Experiments on Social
Interactions in Live Zebrafish. iScience, 2020; 23 (8): 101418 DOI:
10.1016/j.isci.2020.101418 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200824120040.htm

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