Meeting Abstract

S10-3   10:00 - 10:30  Robotics as a comparative method in ecology and evolutionary biology Lauder, GV; Harvard University glauder@oeb.harvard.edu https://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~glauder/

How do we test hypotheses in ecology and evolutionary biology? Most often researchers use either a comparative approach, frequently grounded in a phylogenetic hypothesis, an experimental/manipulative method, or some combination of these. The comparative approach, while widespread, suffers from the ceteris paribus assumption: that all traits other than the one under study are held constant. In a controlled experimental study, only the variable of interest changes against a constant background among the groups being compared. This is a challenging criterion to meet in evolutionary biology when phylogenetic endpoints are bring compared, with all the accompanying uncontrolled historical differences and accumulated traits unrelated to the feature of interest. But comparative biology and comparative methods are nonetheless central to research in ecology and evolution, and biologists have devised a number of ways to mitigate the effects of uncontrolled variables. The central theme of this presentation is that the field of robotics is itself an extremely useful comparative method that has much to offer ecologists and evolutionary biologists. Robotics has special utility in three key areas: (1) mechanical/robotic devices allow precise control of variation and hence allow rigorous comparisons among traits; (2) mechanical/robotic devices allow direct measurement of energetic costs of morphological features; (3) mechanical/robotic devices allow quantification of the performance landscape. Examples from the study of swimming fish-like robots will be used to illustrate each of these three areas, and demonstrate the utility of mechanical systems for testing causal hypotheses about the relationship between morphological traits and performance.