The small participants were tasked with driving the robot towards a target visually marked with a different color than the rest of the plain good ol' white walls. The sea creatures could see the target through the clear tank and navigate across a surface by simply using their body movement, sort of pushing in the direction they wanted to go.
A camera was placed above the tank to track the orientation, while Lidar sensors and a computer measured the exact distance between the fish and the target. To get motivated, the goldfish were given treats after completing the task, much like you'd usually see in a dog's training process, for example.
The results? Well, the small creatures were able to navigate on land, explore their surroundings and even avoid getting stuck in a corner. This just proves that animal behavior is much more complex than we thought.
You can see a video of the experiment down below as the team posted the results on Twitter. They also published a scientific paper that is available online for those who want to find out more details about the mechanism involved.
I am excited to share a new study led by Shachar Givon & @MatanSamina w/ Ohad Ben Shahar: Goldfish can learn to navigate a small robotic vehicle on land. We trained goldfish to drive a wheeled platform that reacts to the fish’s movement (https://t.co/ZR59Hu9sib). pic.twitter.com/J5BkuGlZ34
— Ronen Segev (@ronen_segev) January 3, 2022
The fish were tasked to “drive” the vehicle towards a visual target in the terrestrial environment, which was observable through the walls of the tank. Indeed, the goldfish were able to explore the terrestrial environment, all while avoiding dead-ends and correcting inaccuracies. pic.twitter.com/RxPuzFbxkE
— Ronen Segev (@ronen_segev) January 3, 2022