A biomimetic millirobot for mapping the sensorimotor control of schooling fish

Collective behaviours emerge from local sensorimotor feedback. Understanding this process in a casual and quantitative way is critical yet challenging. While virtual reality can decode visual-motor control in schooling fish, it is difficult to involve mechanical sensing. Traditional robotic systems can mimic real fish swimming kinematics, but their dynamics and size often differ greatly from those of real animals due to the limitations of motors. To address this challenge, we propose constructing millirobots that are drive by magnetic fields and have fish-like size, kinematics, and dynamics. By interacting with real fish, the robots could provide specific controllable social stimuli to real fish to decode their visual and/or mechanical sensory-motor control.

Our preliminary results demonstrate the promising potential of using a reciprocating magnetic field to control these robots. Future studies will focus on improving fabrication, movement, and hydrodynamic generation. We also plan to conduct a verification of our robots by comparing the behaviour of real fish reacting to the robot with that of a real fish system.