Project Description
Rats have long since been used in a wide range of behavioral studies. This project is ongoing work to use the iRat as modeling platform for neuroscience studies, for testing neural models of bio-inspired navigation algorithms and for behavioral studies showing rat-robot interactions.
Many of the rats observed the iRat, peeping over the wall to check where it was, and often tracking around behind it. Over a period of four days, five rats were tested, and all had similar behaviors, some a little more timid, and one that seemed to like riding on the iRat
This project is run by Janet Wiles from Australia and Andrea Chiba and Laleh Quinn in the USA. My role is an advisory and supportive role, along with providing the iRat.
A rat interacting with the iRat. Here the rat approaches the iRat to retrieve a food reward.
Publication
J Wiles, S Heath, D Ball, L Quinn, A Chiba (2012) Rat meets iRat. IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL).
