Building Mixed Societies of Animals and Robots

This article presents the European project LEURRE aiming to study, model and control mixed societies of animals and robots. The robotic part discusses general ideas on the design and implementation of robots to be used together with groups of animals. After a presentation of the project, the implications on the special requirements imposed on the robot is discussed. The design process of the robot is described leading to the implementation of the autonomous mini-robot called InsBot. It is very compact, has many sensors and is able to interact with gregarious cockroaches. Programming the robot to be accepted by its natural counterpart gives insight into the basic behaviours necessary in a mixed society. This results are useful for collective robotics as well.

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