Of Rats and Robots

We have finally published our long-term study on a novel animal–robot interaction paradigm that enables bidirectional learning between rats and robots. As Steinbeck stated, “If you understand each other, you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.” This idea appears to extend to animals and robots as well. In both our in silico and in vivo tests, rat-robot pairs that successfully interpreted each other’s signals adjusted their actions to maximize rewards, fostering mutual learning. In contrast, pairs that failed to do so struggled to adapt, avoided each other, and ultimately failed: Of Rats and Robots