In an interesting turn of events, it has recently been found that an organism as simple as a goldfish may be able to not just navigate but also control a full-fledged vehicle. At Ben Gurion University, a team of researchers have created and developed an actual motorized vehicle that is known as the Fish Operated Vehicle, or “FOV” for short, and is fully controlled by a goldfish.
This machine comes equipped with a complete lidar system that revolves around the concept of using pulsed laser lights in order to collect data with respect to the FOV's location and the fish's movement. The vehicle has a small fish tank on top of it in which the lidar system measures the fish's movements in the tank and translates it to mechanical movement in the vehicle. The vehicle is fitted with a microcomputer, electric motors, a camera, and omnidirectional wheels and the fish right in the centre.
It was also a recorded observation that when the goldfish was properly trained using treats and being provided with an appropriate platform, it quickly learned how to navigate its surroundings using the vehicle itself. It turns out that the goldfish quickly realizes that there is a simple correlation with its movements and that of the vehicle as a whole.
The vehicle moves after it senses movement inside the water tank. This is possible using a overhead sensor that scans the movement of the fish and then sends the data to the microcomputer that is onboard the vehicle itself. This data is processed and in turn makes it possible for the vehicle to move accordingly.
Until now, there have been a total of six goldfish that have been taught to drive this vehicle. Each of these fish were given roughly ten lessons with respect to driving it. They were trained by a positive reinforcement process by using treats and food given to the fish each time they reached a target point. In actuality this isn't the first time an animal has been taught how to drive a vehicle inn previous researches from various universities, cats, dogs and rats have too been trained to drive vehicles.
