仿生机器鼠与实验鼠的行为交互机理建模及定量评估

It is difficult to directly use human beings as experimental subjects due to ethical issues and psychological complexity, which causes unclear clarification of the pathogenesis of mental illness in basic medical science. Instead, the animal models of mental disorder have been used. Actually, they can represent phenotypes such as behavioral disorders or plastic changes in the brains of human patients suffering from mental disorders. However, the low controllability and reproducibility makes it a big challenge for the estimation and analysis of animal behavior and psychological state, which is involved with the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. To solve such problems, we propose to use a robotic rat capable of mimicking rat behavior. In this project, we would like to develop an interaction model, allowing quantitative estimation and adjustment of the behavior and psychological state of laboratory rats by using controlling the robot behavior (friendly or agonistic) in real-time..With the combination of robotics, zoopsychology and ethology, and the breakthroughs in basic theory and methodology of adaptive control and realistic imitation of behavior, this project has the potential to provide new research directions for the biorobotics field. Additionally, it shows promises to effectively solve the scientific problems such as modeling of animal behavior and adjustment of psychological state, playing an important role in the verification of the pathogenesis of mental disorder and psychotropic drugs screening..

因伦理道德及心理复杂性，基础医学上不易直接对人类精神病患者进行实验研究，难以科学地阐明精神疾病发病机制。为此，研究人员试图通过间接研究具有人类疾病模拟表现的实验鼠等动物模型的行为和心理特性以解决该难题。然而由于动物行为的可控性和再现性较低，与精神疾病诊断及心理治疗方面紧密相关的行为及心理状态评估与分析仍然存在不少挑战。为此，本项目引进具备实验鼠外形并能模拟其行为的仿生机器鼠，建立机器鼠与实验鼠的交互关系模型，通过实时控制机器鼠的行为策略(友好或敌对)，实现对实验鼠的行为及心理状态的定量评估与操控。 . 本项目将机器人学与动物心理学、动物行为学等相结合，突破仿生机器人自适应行为控制、行为动物化表达等基础理论和方法，为仿生机器人研究开辟新的研究思路和方向；有效解决动物行为参数建模及心理状态操控等科学问题，有助于阐明精神疾病发病机理及筛选抗精神病药物，具有重要的学术意义及应用价值。

本项目将机器人学与动物心理学、动物行为学等学科交叉融合，研究实验鼠行为识别算法，构建机器鼠自适应行为生成器，实现机器鼠行为的动物化表达和决策，并对实验鼠行为及心理状态实现评估与操控，有助于开辟仿生机器人研究新方向，具有重要的学术意义及应用价值。首先，基于实验动物行为观察及分析，本项目在仿生机器人微小型关节设计、系统集成方面取得了重要突破，研制出具有与实验鼠大小、运动基本一致的仿生机器鼠，为模拟动物行为交互提供了有效平台。其次，针对目前实验鼠运动复杂、非线性难以建模的问题，将机器鼠在俯仰和偏航方向分别进行了简化建模求解，该控制方法使得机器鼠很好地模拟实验鼠的理毛、嗅探等需要腰部及颈部弯曲动作的行为，为仿生机器人与动物行为交互决策和表达提供理论基础。最后，本项目进行了机器-实验鼠行为交互实验测试。基于神经机制建模智能化分析和行为交互控制，实现了对实验鼠的定向有效刺激，并能对精神疾病动物模型产生有效操控；将机器鼠与多个实验鼠进行行为交互实验，开创性地验证了机器鼠通过非直接接触也能对实验鼠的行为产生影响的重要规律，这对相关领域研究动物行为模式的突破具有重要意义。