An Introduction to Ethorobotics

Book excerpt: This pioneering text explores the emerging discipline of ethorobotics which brings together the fields of animal behaviour and robotics. It encourages closer collaboration between behavioural scientists and engineers to facilitate the creation of robots with a higher degree of functionality in animal/human environments and to broaden understanding of animal behaviour in new and intriguing ways. Utilising the knowledge of key ethologists and roboticists in the field today, this book is divided into four major parts. The first part is written for those with little or no background in the biology of animal behaviour, particularly for those coming from an engineering background seeking an accessible introduction to the field and how it can be applied to robotic behaviour. Topics include problem solving in animals, social cognition, and communication (visual, acoustic, olfactory, etc.). The second part is an introduction to the basic construction of robots for non‐engineers, and the possibilities offered by current technical achievements and their limitations to the study of animal behaviour. The third part explores the core theme of ethorobotics, the basic framework of the discipline, the field’s evolution, and current topics including ethical considerations, autonomy, to ‘living’ social robots. The fourth and final chapter looks at ethorobotics in practice through key research projects which have had the biggest impact. This is a ground‐breaking interdisciplinary text which will appeal to upper‐level undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers focusing on animal behaviour and cognition, as well as those undertaking courses in engineering, social robotics, biologically inspired robotics, AI, and human–robot and animal–robot interactions.