The Effect of Mobile Robot on Group Behavior of Animals

Abstract

This paper observes the effect of a mobile robot on the group behavior of soldier crabs. In this study, the mobile robot interacts with eight soldier crabs. For the experimental analyses, this paper adopts four settings. In the first setting, eight soldier crabs are placed in the field without the presence of the robot. In the second, third, and fourth conditions, eight soldier crabs are placed in the field with, respectively, a stationary robot, a continuously moving robot, and an intermittently moving robot. These experimental results obtained are analyzed using a fluctuation index. From the analysis, it is found that the fluctuation slope for only the fourth experiment differs from that for the other experiments. This result suggests that the intermittently moving robot influences the group behavior of the soldier crabs.