Paul Phamduy

Informal science education is a key contributing factor to scientific literacy, which determines our capacity as a society to technologically progress and make cognizant decisions on pressing issues of global scale. Both the fields of robotics and natural user interfaces have been separately proposed as effective means to aid informal science education, by increasing users’ engagement through multiple interactive features. Here, we propose the integration of these two fields of investigation toward a novel educational platform, revolving around the control of a robotic fish via a natural user interface. Users control the robotic fish through upper limb gestures that are captured by the Kinect. The robotic fish incorporates a temperature sensor, which collects data in a tank instrumented with heating and cooling sources. Participants observe the measurements they are recording in real-time to map the environment. Self-reported post-activity surveys and behavioral coding data on young users were collected to assess their level of engagement in the activity and their perception of the system. Our results indicate that the robotic fish is intuitive to drive with the natural user interface, the activity of collecting water temperature is interesting, and robotics may be a viable and accessible career option.

Robotics has been often proposed as a viable means to support informal science learning, through hands-on activities and learning across fields in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics. However, instances in which robots have been effectively integrated in informal science learning events are rare, and data on participants’ learning and engagement are even scarcer. Here, we present the deployment of a new robotic fish controlled by an iDevice application at a series of informal science learning events. Visitors to the exhibit are offered a unique learning experience, where they can interact with the robotic fish through a range of control modalities, highlighting the principles of autonomy and remote operations. Data collected on visitor interactions with the application indicate a longer time usage for more interactive control modes, with less degree of autonomy. Moreover, survey data garnered after the interaction with the robots suggest that visitors are concerned about environmental issue of marine pollution and eager to learn more. This platform can serve as the basis for systematically exploring the potential of robotics in informal science learning, by combining refined data collection with interactive control.

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Aquatic animals of vastly different sizes show a simple relationship between swimming speed and body kinematics. Swimming robots, whose morphology and gaits are inspired by those animals, are not an exception.

Informal science education is the process of scientific learning that takes place outside of the classrooms and academic institutions. It is the most predominant form of learning across life-long education, is spontaneous in nature, and has practically unlimited opportunities. Informal learning can occur through visits to museums and galleries, participation in science festivals, and even watching educational programs. For visitors to informal science venues, robotics has been shown to be an effective tool to elicit their interest, as it often affords several elements of novelty. Further, robotics offers quick feedback for participants to test new ideas or reinforce preexisting knowledge. Thus, a number of robotics-based exhibits, such as the exploratory rover, robotic dolphin, and remotely controlled miniature boats, have been designed to increase visitors’ interest in robotics, while delivering important topics in science, like space explorations and environmental mapping. Biologically-inspired robotic fish have been found to be particularly engaging, likely due to the additional connections to the natural world they can offer. Thus, a few robotic fish exhibits have been deployed to engage and educate visitors in public aquariums and expositions. However, such exhibits are often limited in the level of interactivity they afford, which is known to be a key factor in informal science education.

In this article, we present the design, development, and characterization of a biomimetic robotic fish remotely controlled by an iDevice application (app) for use in informal science education. By leveraging robots, biomimicry, and iDevices, we seek to establish an engaging and unique experience for free-choice learners visiting aquariums, zoos, museums, and other public venues. The robotic fish incorporates a three-degree-of-freedom tail along with a combined pitch and buoyancy control system, allowing for high maneuverability in an underwater three-dimensional (3-D) space. The iDevice app implements three modes of control that offer a vividly colored, intuitive, and user-friendly theme to enhance the user experience when controlling the biomimetic robotic fish. In particular, the implemented modes vary in the degree of autonomy of the robotic fish, from fully autonomous to remotely controlled. A series of tests are conducted to assess the performance of the robotic fish and the interactive control modes. Finally, a usability study on elementary school students is performed to learn about students' perception of the platform and the various control modes.

In animal studies, robots have been recently used as a valid tool for testing a wide spectrum of hypotheses. These robots often exploit visual or auditory cues to modulate animal behavior. The propensity of zebrafish, a model organism in biological studies, toward fish with similar color patterns and shape has been leveraged to design biologically inspired robots that successfully attract zebrafish in preference tests. With an aim of extending the application of such robots to field studies, here, we investigate the response of zebrafish to multiple robotic fish swimming at different speeds and in varying arrangements. A soft real-time multi-target tracking and control system remotely steers the robots in circular trajectories during the experimental trials. Our findings indicate a complex behavioral response of zebrafish to biologically inspired robots. More robots produce a significant change in salient measures of stress, with a fast robot swimming alone causing more freezing and erratic activity than two robots swimming slowly together. In addition, fish spend more time in the proximity of a robot when they swim far apart than when the robots swim close to each other. Increase in the number of robots also significantly alters the degree of alignment of fish motion with a robot. Results from this study are expected to advance our understanding of robot perception by live animals and aid in hypothesis-driven studies in unconstrained free-swimming environments.

The experimental integration of bioinspired robots in groups of social animals has become a valuable tool to understand the basis of social behavior and uncover the fundamental determinants of animal communication. In this study, we measured the preference of fertile female bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei) for robotic replicas whose aspect ratio, body size, motion pattern, and color morph were inspired by adult male killifish. The motion of the fish replica was controlled via a robotic platform, which simulated the typical courtship behavior observed in killifish males. The positional preferences of females were measured for three different color morphs (red, yellow, and blue). While variation in preference was high among females, females tend to spend more time in the vicinity of the yellow painted robot replicas. This preference may have emerged because the yellow robot replicas were very bright, particularly in the longer wavelengths (550?700 nm) compared to the red and blue replicas. These findings are in agreement with previous observations in mosquitofish and zebrafish on fish preference for artificially enhanced yellow pigmentation.

The possibility of integrating bioinspired robots in groups of live social animals may constitute a valuable tool to study the basis of social behavior and uncover the fundamental determinants of animal functions and dysfunctions. In this study, we investigate the interactions between individual golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) and robotic fish swimming together in a water tunnel at constant flow velocity. The robotic fish is designed to mimic its live counterpart in the aspect ratio, body shape, dimension, and locomotory pattern. Fish positional preference with respect to the robot is experimentally analyzed as the robot's color pattern and tail-beat frequency are varied. Behavioral observations are corroborated by particle image velocimetry studies aimed at investigating the flow structure behind the robotic fish. Experimental results show that the time spent by golden shiners in the vicinity of the bioinspired robotic fish is the highest when the robot mimics their natural color pattern and beats its tail at the same frequency. In these conditions, fish tend to swim at the same depth of the robotic fish, where the wake from the robotic fish is stronger and hydrodynamic return is most likely to be effective.