Crow Box
The Crow Box is an experimentation platform designed to autonomously train Crow to do simple tasks in exchange of treat/food.
The first step is to understand the behaviour pattern of crow and get them aware of the availability of the food and then upgrade the training protocol to see how quickly they can learn from each other.
Why Only Crow?
Crows are found in diverse geographical locations around the world including the extreme weather conditions areas of Arctic.
An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, and the University of Oxford have revealed that New Caledonian crows are able to create tools by combining two or more otherwise non-functional elements, an ability so far observed only in humans and great apes.
The new study shows that these birds can create long-reaching tools out of short combinable parts – an astonishing mental feat. An assemblage of different components into novel functional and manoeuvrable tools has, until now, only been observed in apes, and anthropologists regard early human compound tool manufacture as a significant step in brain evolution.
The study demonstrates that this species of crow possess highly flexible abilities that allow them to solve complex problems involving anticipation of the properties of objects they have never seen. ‘The finding is remarkable because the crows received no assistance or training in making these combinations, they figured it out by themselves,’ says Auguste von Bayern, first author of the study from the Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology and University of Oxford.
How Does It Work?
Based on established Skinnerian training principles (Behaviour that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behaviour followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated.), the action of the device is divided into following stages:
- Discovery and Free Feeding
- Notification of available of food based on colour(Red-No available, Green-Available)
- Food Available On Landing
- Food Available on deposition of objects kept around the Crow Box
- Food Available on deposition of a particular object.
Reference Links
Existing Crow Box Design
http://thecrowbox.com/wiki/doku.php?id=kit:overview_doc
Official Crow Box Introduction Video
IOT Based Smart Surveillance System
Create your own DIY Crowbox to study their behaviour!
- Task 01: Come out with your own design of Crow box which is weather proof and observe and record the behaviour of the species coming to eat the feed.
- Task 02: Introduce IOT in feeding box to indicate the presence/absence of food
- Task 03: Integrate the sensor to detect the presence of crow/any animal then drop the food.
- Task 04: Food dispensed only when the object of the table is dropped in the shoot
- Task 05: Food dispensed only if the crow collects the particular object and drops in the shoot