Kruusmaa M, Gkliva R, Tuhtan J A, Tuvikene A, Alfredsen J A
Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Otto Nielsens Veg 10, Trondheim NO-7491, Norway.
Centre for Biorobotics, Department of Computer Systems, Tallinn University of Technology, Akadeemia tee 15A, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia.
R Soc Open Sci. 2020 Mar 11;7(3):191220. doi: 10.1098/rsos.191220. eCollection 2020 Mar.
Animal-robot studies can inform us about animal behaviour and inspire advances in agriculture, environmental monitoring and animal health and welfare. Currently, experimental results on how fish are affected by the presence of underwater robots are largely limited to laboratory environments with few individuals and a focus on model species. Laboratory studies provide valuable insight, but their results are not necessarily generalizable to larger scales such as marine aquaculture. This paper examines the effects of underwater robots and a human diver in a large fish aggregation within a Norwegian aquaculture facility, with the explicit purpose to improve the use of underwater robots for fish observations. We observed aquaculture salmon's reaction to the flipper-propelled robot U-CAT in a sea cage with 188 000 individuals. A significant difference in fish behaviour was found using U-CAT when compared to a thruster-driven underwater robot, Argus Mini and a human diver. Specifically, salmon were more likely to swim closer to U-CAT at a lower tailbeat frequency. Fish reactions were not significantly different when considering motor noise or when U-CAT's colour was changed from yellow to silver. No difference was observed in the distance or tailbeat frequency as a response to thruster or flipper motion, when actuated and passively floating robots were compared. These results offer insight into how large aggregations of aquaculture salmon respond to underwater robots. Furthermore, the proposed underwater video processing workflow to assess fish's response to underwater robots is simple and reproducible. This work provides a practical method to study fish-robot interactions, which can lead to improved underwater robot designs to provide more affordable, scalable and effective solutions.
动物与机器人的研究能够让我们了解动物行为，并推动农业、环境监测以及动物健康与福利等领域的进步。目前，关于水下机器人的存在如何影响鱼类的实验结果，在很大程度上仅限于个体数量较少且聚焦于模式物种的实验室环境。实验室研究提供了有价值的见解，但它们的结果不一定能推广到更大规模的场景，比如海水养殖。本文研究了水下机器人和一名人类潜水员在挪威一个水产养殖设施内的大型鱼群中的影响，其明确目的是改进水下机器人在鱼类观测中的应用。我们在一个装有188000条鱼的网箱中观察了水产养殖三文鱼对鳍桨驱动的机器人U - CAT的反应。与推进器驱动的水下机器人阿格斯迷你号（Argus Mini）和一名人类潜水员相比，使用U - CAT时发现鱼类行为存在显著差异。具体而言，三文鱼更有可能以较低的尾鳍摆动频率游向U - CAT。在考虑电机噪音或U - CAT的颜色从黄色变为银色时，鱼类反应没有显著差异。当比较主动驱动和被动漂浮的机器人时，在对推进器或鳍桨运动的反应中，观察到距离或尾鳍摆动频率没有差异。这些结果为水产养殖三文鱼的大型鱼群如何对水下机器人做出反应提供了见解。此外，所提出的用于评估鱼类对水下机器人反应的水下视频处理工作流程简单且可重复。这项工作提供了一种研究鱼类与机器人相互作用的实用方法，这可以带来改进的水下机器人设计，以提供更经济实惠、可扩展且有效的解决方案。
