Animal Cognition & Ecology lab

About me:

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I love pumps. Oh, how I love pumps! Also 3D printers. And Rasperry Pis. And spiders. Sometimes, I throw all of these together, and science comes out.

 

Current project

 

Developing a robotic flower meadow

I will take micro-cameras, micro-computers, micro-pumps, and a lot of 3D printer spool, and shake it all together with some code until a robotic flower meadow comes out. Then, we will glue little ArUco codes (think QR codes but better) on the backs of bumblebees, and use behavioural economic tricks to try to steer bee preference between flowers in our robotic meadow.

Did I mention there would be pumps? There will be. Lots. Like, at least 80 of them.

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Recognition of biological motion in jumping spiders

Using an awesome air-cushion-roller-ball system, I allow magnetically-harnessed jumping spiders to see images which encapsulate biological motion, to examine how spiders detect and respond to such stimuli. Did I mention there are robotic arms? And that I made the whole system from scratch with a 3D printer? Alas, no pumps.

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