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The
team at Ben-Gurion University developed an FOV - a fish-operated
vehicle. The robotic car is fitted with lidar, a remote sensing
technology that uses pulsed laser light to collect data on the
vehicle's ground location and the fish's whereabouts inside a
mounted water tank.
A computer, camera, electric motors and omni-wheels give the
fish control of the vehicle.
"Surprisingly, it doesn't take the fish a long time to learn how
to drive the vehicle. They're confused at first. They don't know
what's going on but they're very quick to realise that there is
a correlation between their movement and the movement of the
machine that they're in," said researcher Shachar Givon.
Six goldfish, each receiving around 10 driving lessons, took
part in the study. Each time one of them reached a target set by
the researchers, it was rewarded with food.
And some goldfish are better drivers than others.
"There were very good fish that were doing excellent and there
were mediocre fish that showed control of the vehicle but were
less proficient in driving it," said biology professor and
neuroscientist Ronen Segev.
Showing that a fish has the cognitive capability to navigate
outside its natural environment of water can expand scientific
knowledge of animals' essential navigation skills.
"We humans think of ourselves as very special and many think of
fish as primitive but this is not correct," said Segev. "There
are other very important and very smart creatures."
(Reporting by Rami Amichay and Maayan Lubell, editing by Ed
Osmond)
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