Canine Motion Control Using Bright Spotlight Devices Mounted on a Suit

Abstract

Engineering to produce stimuli that trigger an organism's habits allows us to control it noninvasively. Because canines already have the habit to follow a light spot, light is a good stimulus for controlling their motion. We employed green laser beams to successfully control canine motion indoors. We developed a suit equipped with laser beam devices that face front, left, and right. The canine wore the suit and followed a light spot on the ground. Its trajectory was controlled remotely by switching the lights on the suit. However, this laser beam spot was too weak and small to be visible in grassy fields outdoors. Here, we propose a spotlight device that irradiates a bright and large spot (70 mm in diameter) for outdoor environments. The proposed spotlight device consists of a high brightness LED and a convex lens. To evaluate its performance, we conducted indoor and outdoor experiments using three canines. In the indoor experiments, the success rates of controlling the canine's motions were 100%, 83.3%, and 93.3% for each of the three canines, respectively. In outdoor experiments, these rates were 100%, 57.1%, and 62.5%, respectively. Hence, the proposed spotlight devices are effective for controlling a canine even in outdoor environments.