NYU-POLY RESEARCHERS TEASE OUT CUES THAT IMPACT SCHOOLING
FISH BEHAVIOR
Recent studies from two research teams at the Polytechnic
Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) demonstrate how underwater robots
can be used to understand and influence the complex swimming behaviors of
schooling fish. The teams, led by Maurizio Porfiri, associate professor of
mechanical and aerospace engineering at NYU-Poly, published two separate papers
in the journal PLOS ONE.
These studies are the latest in a significant body of
research by Porfiri and collaborators utilizing robots, specifically robotic
fish, to impact collective animal behavior. In collaboration with doctoral
candidate Paul Phamduy and NYU-Poly research scholar Giovanni Polverino,
Porfiri designed an experiment to examine the interplay of visual cues and flow
cues—changes in the water current as a result of tail-beat frequency—in
triggering a live golden shiner fish to either approach or ignore a robotic
fish.