Neural Processes Underlying Tool Use in Humans, Macaques, and Corvids

Robot tool use: A survey

Using human tools can significantly benefit robots in many application domains. Such ability would allow robots to solve problems that they were unable to without tools. However, robot tool use is a challenging task. Tool use was initially considered to be the ability that distinguishes human beings from other animals. We identify three skills required for robot tool use: perception, manipulation, and high-level cognition skills. While both general manipulation tasks and tool use tasks require the same level of perception accuracy, there are unique manipulation and cognition challenges in robot tool use. In this survey, we first define robot tool use. The definition highlighted the skills required for robot tool use. The skills coincide with an affordance model which defined a three-way relation between actions, objects, and effects. We also compile a taxonomy of robot tool use with insights from animal tool use literature. Our definition and taxonomy lay a theoretical foundation for future robot tool use studies and also serve as practical guidelines for robot tool use applications. We first categorize tool use based on the context of the task. The contexts are highly similar for the same task (e.g., cutting) in non-causal tool use, while the contexts for causal tool use are diverse. We further categorize causal tool use based on the task complexity suggested in animal tool use studies into single-manipulation tool use and multiple-manipulation tool use. Single-manipulation tool use are sub-categorized based on tool features and prior experiences of tool use. This type of tool may be considered as building blocks of causal tool use. Multiple-manipulation tool use combines these building blocks in different ways. The different combinations categorize multiple-manipulation tool use. Moreover, we identify different skills required in each sub-type in the taxonomy. We then review previous studies on robot tool use based on the taxonomy and describe how the relations are learned in these studies. We conclude with a discussion of the current applications of robot tool use and open questions to address future robot tool use.

Beyond the Chicken: Alternative Avian Models for Developmental Physiological Research

Biomedical research focusing on physiological, morphological, behavioral, and other aspects of development has long depended upon the chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) as a key animal model that is presumed to be typical of birds and generally applicable to mammals. Yet, the modern chicken in its many forms is the result of artificial selection more intense than almost any other domesticated animal. A consequence of great variation in genotype and phenotype is that some breeds have inherent aberrant physiological and morphological traits that may show up relatively early in development (e.g., hypertension, hyperglycemia, and limb defects in the broiler chickens). While such traits can be useful as models of specific diseases, this high degree of specialization can color general experimental results and affect their translational value. Against this background, in this review we first consider the characteristics that make an animal model attractive for developmental research (e.g., accessibility, ease of rearing, size, fecundity, development rates, genetic variation, etc.). We then explore opportunities presented by the embryo to adult continuum of alternative bird models, including quail, ratites, songbirds, birds of prey, and corvids. We conclude by indicating that expanding developmental studies beyond the chicken model to include additional avian groups will both validate the chicken model as well as potentially identify even more suitable avian models for answering questions applicable to both basic biology and the human condition.

Self-care tooling innovation in a disabled kea (Nestor notabilis)

Tooling is associated with complex cognitive abilities, occurring most regularly in large-brained mammals and birds. Among birds, self-care tooling is seemingly rare in the wild, despite several anecdotal reports of this behaviour in captive parrots. Here, we show that Bruce, a disabled parrot lacking his top mandible, deliberately uses pebbles to preen himself. Evidence for this behaviour comes from five lines of evidence: (i) in over 90% of instances where Bruce picked up a pebble, he then used it to preen; (ii) in 95% of instances where Bruce dropped a pebble, he retrieved this pebble, or replaced it, in order to resume preening; (iii) Bruce selected pebbles of a specific size for preening rather than randomly sampling available pebbles in his environment; (iv) no other kea in his environment used pebbles for preening; and (v) when other individuals did interact with stones, they used stones of different sizes to those Bruce preened with. Our study provides novel and empirical evidence for deliberate self-care tooling in a bird species where tooling is not a species-specific behaviour. It also supports claims that tooling can be innovated based on ecological necessity by species with sufficiently domain-general cognition.