Researchers at Waseda University in Tokyo have created a robot to induce stress and depression in lab rats.
By studying the way the rats react to the artificially induced stress, the team hopes to understand how stress affects humans. By using a robot to induce the stress, the team can also research which aggressive actions reactions trigger stress in the rats. It all sounds very dubious, but it could lead to new information on how rats (and other living beings, like humans) can live alongside robots.
For years, rats and mice have been used in experiments seeking to understand human ailments. The animals are also vital for drug testing that develops new treatments for these ailments. But inducing stress and depression in rodents that mimics how humans perceive those mental states has been a challenge. Scientists have formerly used methods such as depriving mice of their sense of smell or subjecting them to forced swimming in an attempt to mimic human stress and depression. Now, the team from Waseda University hopes to get testing results from a robot.
The robot is called WR-3, a pretty innocuous name for a psychological torture bot that is about the size of very large rat. It probably doesn't make actual, normal-sized rats feel any safer about being near it: WR-3 has two front legs for steering and two rear, motorized wheels.
In a series of experiments, the robot was programmed to interact with the rats in various stressful ways. In one, researchers programmed WR-3 to chase a rat. In another, the robot attacked (non-violently) the rat for a specific amount of time. In a third experiment, WR-3 attacked the rat only when it detected movement. In other experiments, the rats had to rely on WR-3 to provide them with food or to actually manipulate the robot to receive food.
The interactive attack strategy, when movement was detected, was the most successful method of triggering the rats' symptoms of depression (very broadly defined as less activity).
For more information, and a video of a furry white robot harassing a rat, visit Phys Org and New Scientist.
