

Parrot Learns to Drive Robotic Buggy His Owner Designed and Built - yareally
https://sites.google.com/site/birdbuggy109/

======
ComputerGuru
Here's the media page: <https://sites.google.com/site/birdbuggy109/media>

Watch the first video (from 1 minute onwards, esp. around 2:30). Wow. Just
wow. The bird isn't just going forward, he navigates edges, turns the buggy,
gets out of ruts, chooses to drive across the (narrow) paved path instead of
in gravel (and navigates to avoid the latter), and clearly understands the
mechanisms of controlling a buggy/car.

I'm one of the biggest proponents of animal "sentience" (my main problem is
with that word itself - I think the differences between us and _certain_
animals is a question of quantity/scale, not a matter of us possessing
reasoning and will and them not), and despite our family having owned multiple
African Grey parrots, I honestly would never have thought this was possible.
The physical disconnect, hand-eye coordination (well, hand-beak) needed, the
abstraction of movement to a joystick... it's really quite the accomplishment!
Someone needs to write new journal papers about this ASAP. There's history to
be made, and I can honestly say this is one of the most momentous recording
I've seen in my life.

~~~
yareally
The video of the owner training him to turn right near the bottom of the page
almost appears as if the parrot is messing with the guy and purposely not
turning in the correct manner. Made me smile when he kept putting him back in
the initial position only to see him turn in a different way.

Given the intelligence of African Gray Parrots (which is estimated to be
around a 4 or 5 year old child), there's a good chance the bird was doing it
intentionally when it kept having to repeat the task over and over.

Birds like this are supposed to also get extremely attached to their owner (as
much as any owner and their dog), especially when they don't have a mate. Some
get to the point if they're away from their owner for more than a couple of
days, they stress out and start pulling out their feathers in a non-healthy
manner that's not just preening.

From friends that have birds, their chirps and squawks are as communicative as
barks and meows of cats and dogs. There's also evidence that birds use those
noises to communicate in an intelligent way with each other
(<http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July11/ParrotNaming.html>). They're
trying to say what they can in the only way they know how. Even if one happens
to bite, it's generally trying to tell you something and is at a loss of how
else to express it (which is rarely meant to hurt you, since their beaks could
do serious damage if they wanted). Some do bite for other reasons, but those
tend to be from the owner not training it properly. Training a parrot from
observing friends with them appears as daunting as training an intelligent
breed of dog.

Seems like building the buggy though solved the poor bird's frustrations. He
most likely did feel abandoned when his owner left the room.

------
stcredzero
Birds are often cantankerous and mischievous. I wonder what would happen if
there was an airsoft gun on that thing with a trigger button.

~~~
Luyt
_Birds are often cantankerous and mischievous._

Could this be because they evolved form the dinosaurs?

~~~
chris_wot
Dinosuars with airsoft guns? Well, I suppose that would go some way to
explaining their extinction...

------
habosa
Related: dogs taught how to drive real cars:
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/dogs-driving-
cars-n...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/dogs-driving-cars-new-
zealand-spca_n_2244476.html)

I can't even drive manual....

------
troymc
This reminds me of "Project Pigeon," B.F. Skinner's attempt to develop a
pigeon-controlled missile during World War II:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon>

------
Joakal
Inspired by the African parrot's speeches in past, I had often considered
raising an African Grey parrot with human teachings from a young age, akin to
gorillas. It would certainly be exhausting with learning how to teach and
teaching it. At least to see if it can pass it on to other animals. Perhaps
even demand the right to vote!

However, the African Grey parrots are becoming endangered because people want
them as a pet. I feel bad for wanting one now.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Grey_Parrot>

------
stretchwithme
We are probably more similar than we can imagine.

~~~
yareally
Speaking of that, its behavior listed at some of the linked articles on the
main site seems to closely resemble that of a 4 or 5 year old child (ignoring
the guardian's writing style):

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/dec/07/...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/dec/07/3)

 _The first toy was a sound-activated squirt gun. This toy sprayed water on
Pepper whenever he screamed. After an initial period of silent astonishment at
his human companion's sheer ingenuity, Pepper tested the toy thoroughly and
grew to love it. Of course, Pepper's shrieks were rewarded so he screamed more
than ever, although now, his frustration was tempered with long moments of
soggy, shrieking delight.

"He started using it as a bird bath", admits Mr Gray, who originally designed
this particular toy to quiet Pepper. He added: but "then he'd scream just to
be squirted."_

Another parrot that was studied closely for its intelligence was Alex the
Parrot. There was evidence it understood the concept of zero and could put
together words to describe objects it hadn't seen before:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_the_parrot>

 _"Alex understood the turn-taking of communication and often the syntax used
in language.[10] He called an apple a "banerry", which Pepperberg thought to
be a combination of "banana" and "cherry", two fruits he was more familiar
with.[14]"_

Alex also had a tendency to turn the tables on the researches by giving
incorrect answers when it knew the correct one as well:

 _Once, Alex was given several different colored blocks (two red, three blue,
and four green—similar to the picture above). Pepperberg asked him, "What
color three?" expecting him to say blue. However, as Alex had been asked this
question before, he seemed to have become bored. He answered "five!" This kept
occurring until Pepperberg said "Fine, what color five?" Alex replied "none".
This suggests that parrots, like children, get bored. Sometimes, Alex
purposely answered the questions incorrectly, despite knowing the correct
answer.[15]_

Though it's only self-anecdotal, I put some old peanuts out a while ago for
some birds or squirrels to eat and noticed that a pair of Blue Jays were
usually grabbing them. I started putting the peanuts in different locations
and would observe how they would react. At first, they would look for them
around their usual spot and then they would search around the yard until they
discovered where they were located now.

I was going to take it a step further and cover one in some way (like with a
paper cup) and another next to it exposed see if they would spot both of them.
However, they stopped coming around one day and couldn't take my amateur
experiment any further. They also were very observant to if you were watching
them as well. At least several times they decided not to grab the peanuts that
were closer to the house and where I was watching them through the window most
likely because they detected me.

I can never get enough information on nearly any random topic and lately
that's been extended to birds. The past few years that I have been studying
birds more closely, I've realized that we underestimate the intelligence and
cleverness of many of them despite being probably the most common animal we
see in the wild on a daily basis.

~~~
pokoleo
That's a lot of research one one topic. Are you a bird person?

~~~
yareally
Don't own any, but just find them to be uniquely interesting animals for their
odd behaviors and habits (such as why many birds end up pairing together for a
number of years to raise offspring while most other animals do not), which I
end up finding to be similar to many of the quirks that us humans also tend to
share at times.

My family did have a budgie (parakeet) though when I was younger, but it was
not my pet specifically and I didn't take a huge interest at the time.

I jump from topic to topic a lot, hyper focusing on it to suck up whatever
useful information I can. History, programming, art, music, whatever. Just
like many of us here, I just have a curious nature about nearly everything and
want to find out what makes something do or act as it does :)

Since I started to take more interest in them, I realized how much more they
happen to be around while running errands or just getting some exercise at the
park. I guess if anything, they make me feel closer to nature when I'm
surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers. Sort of an oasis in the middle of a
desert if there's a metaphor for it.

Even the lowly house sparrow is more savvy than I used to believe. They've
been observed making use automatic opening doors by triggering the sensors
(<http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v103n04/p0725-p0726.pdf>). After I read
that, it made more sense how the sparrows at a nearby supermarket by me happen
to find shelter inside its walls.

For anyone that just has a general interest or wants an informative
introduction to birds, the BBC did a great series on them a while ago,
narrated by David Attenborough
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Birds>). Can't say I like all
birds, but I think they're a species that tends to be underestimated and taken
for granted by us when compared to mammals for their intelligence and
adaptability.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Birds and Squirrels are the easiest to do backyard "research" on/with. We did
an experiment with jays where we put some nuts on a button which was a door
bell, it would ding when they too k the nuts. Then we'd go out and set up an
experiment on the porch. After about a week of this they'd ring the button
when they wanted to be "experimented" with :-) One of the things I wondered
was how much energy you could harvest from a squirrel. Basically training it
to run in a wheel until the treat dropped. (the wheel being hooked to a
generator to charge a battery). Then stretching out the treat drop until you
reach the end of squirrel's patience.

------
philsalesses
Now what would be really cool is if the owner designs and builds a contraption
for the parrot to fly... oh wait....

~~~
paullth
Or built some awesome robotic legs for it?

------
ars
So why do we need computer driven cars? Let's just raise some parrots instead.

~~~
Angostura
Well, we experimented with pigeon-guided missiles in WW 2

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obilgic
It just wants to bite that thing.

~~~
waterlesscloud
I'm curious if it's achieving goals by its driving or if it's just moving
around.

~~~
yareally
In one video, it drives the buggy over to its owner to see what food he was
eating. Even parrots are nosy about what people are eating from watching
several of my friends' birds, like cats and dogs. They end up yelping when
they see you eating until you give them something special to eat too.

There's other observations as mentioned, but that one seems to show the parrot
has a goal in mind when he's moving it.

