In 2022, Even Fish Could Drive Vehicles
The researchers from the Ben-Gurion University in Israel has started to use a strangely identical mechanism to identify the position of a goldfish in a tank, and direct the “Fish Operated Vehicle” [https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/03/the-fish-is-driving-again/?guccounter=1] in the direction of the sector it swims to.
The researchers from the Ben-Gurion University in Israel has started to use a strangely identical mechanism to identify the position of a goldfish in a tank, and direct the “Fish Operated Vehicle” in the direction of the sector it swims to.
The scientists then set the goldfish to complete different kinds of tasks that are needed to actively navigate the vehicle around the larger, non-aquatic world.
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
Regardless of the common insight that goldfish are particularly lacking in the brains department, they’re actually able to learn and remember fairly complicated behaviors and situations. But there’s no reason to consider that the animal would manage to figure out the more theoretical concept of space represented by its tank moving through a larger world by some external means.
What is more important is that it means there’s a quite good opportunity to get a mobile terrarium for your fish, iguana, skink, allowing it the freedom of the house without actually letting it slither or scuttle everywhere.
