WEBVTT

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As you all know, robotics
and artificial intelligence

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are on their way to revolutionize
space exploration.

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We are only at the beginning.

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NASA will soon send this robot to Mars.

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It will not only move around
while reporting exceptional images to us,

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but it is equipped 
with an articulating arm

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that will allow us to explore
the origins of life on this planet.

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I think and I will demonstrate to you

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that robotics can also revolutionize

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our approach to life 
on our planet this time,

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and especially 
in these animal populations

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that I have studied
since the start of the 1970s.

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I am talking about the King Penguin,

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in the southern territories
in the Crozet Islands,

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which we call "the French Galapagos"
and contains around 25 million seabirds.

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So at the core of all studies -

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in particular a study
leading us to discover

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an anti-microbial molecule
in the stomach of penguins

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that enables them to keep 
fish intact for three weeks,

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at their own body
temperature of 37 degrees ...

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Have you ever tried to keep fish at 37°C?

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Well, it becomes a terrible
poison after a few days.

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... It enables them to preserve
fish for three weeks

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and to feed their hatching chicks 
if their partner hasn't come back in time.

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But I want to talk to you
about another approach,

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through these identifications

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that consists of following the evolution
of their reproductive success and survival

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as indicators of climate change.

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To do so obviously, we need a study
with no experimental bias.

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But it is impossible to know
if the technique used

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to follow them, identify them 
and localize them,

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if this technique,

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due to the inconveniences brought
in the penguins' moves in the water

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had any impact.

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In any case, it lasted twenty years.

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And one day. while reading a TV guide,

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I discovered the existence
of this new technique

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commonly used today for dogs and cats:

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the small chip 
that goes under their skin.

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It helps vets identify the animal

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by placing an antenna 
a dozen centimetres away

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because the problem, 
the limiting factor of this technique

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is that identification is done
by using radio frequency

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since there is no battery,

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and this lack of battery is what makes 
it possible to have a chip that small,

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about 0.8g for the one we use.

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So of course, we began

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by deploying those chips
among the penguins,

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half of which were already
ringed and the other half were not.

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The result was shocking.

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We were at the beginning of the 1990s
when we started this work,

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and we published it in 2011.

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So it took ten years.

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Now how did we do it?

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We installed antennas
in the earth, at their crossing points.

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The first crossing lets us know

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whether the animal is coming back 
from the sea or leaves it's colony,

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the chip being close to the earth
at level with their feet

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precisely for it to be 
a short distance away.

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This way, we can follow thousands
of birds without disturbing them,

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except that we equipped a number
of them to study the impact of rings.

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The result of this shocking impact due to
the hindrance of the rings when swimming

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is that when they go away
for 20 days, for example,

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they take on an extra ten days.

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This is a very alarming result

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because it means that their reproductive
success is lowered by 40%

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and their survival by 16%.

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That's why we did the cover
of Nature with commentaries ...

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You can see here the words
chosen by the editors:

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"Marked for life".

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In this case of course,

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the reproductive success that was
followed by numerous colleagues

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around the whole world,
by all the teams including abroad,

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all those results were clearly biased.

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We can't use reproductive success
as an indicator of climate change

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when it is lowered by 40% in ten years.

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Today we do without
since we are using chips instead

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and, at the moment, we are following 
18,000 penguins of different species,

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particularly lots of King Penguins,
without disturbing them.

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But I wanted to go even further.

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My ambition was to understand

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how such a colony
of 20,000 couples is structured.

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Obviously it's out of the question to have
a human walk in the colony on foot,

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to come close to each individual
to see if they have a chip.

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So, I had this idea -

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which made some
of my colleagues smile who said,

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"That's just an early retiree's fad,
it will never work" -

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of creating robots to identify them.

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I had to prove them whether or not
approaching the penguins with the robot

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was likely to cause disturbance,

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otherwise it wasn't 
worth doing it obviously .

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So to do so, we used
these kinds of watches

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that are used for jogging.

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They measure your heart rate,

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and your heart rate is an
excellent indicator of stress.

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We compared the change
in their heart rates

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when a human approaches them
and when a robot does so.

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The approach lasts 30 seconds,
then the human or the robot stops.

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The increase in their heart rates
with the robot was relatively low: 16%.

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This is exactly the value we see

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when penguins pass through
the colony next to brooders,

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so a minimal disturbance

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since they are defending 
their territory, you will see that.

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And as soon as the robot stops,

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the brooder's heart rate comes back down

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to its initial value, its initial
"fluctuation" value we could say.

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Now it is quite different
in the case of a human.

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You can see that their heart rate
increases much more.

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Moreover, it stays
at this very high value

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for the entire time the human is there,
even when he stops moving.

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And you even have to wait for six
or seven minutes after he's left

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for it to get back 
to its initial fluctuation value.

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It is due to the fact that,
in contrast with the robot's presence,

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a human even perfectly still,

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creates a reaction
of avoidance in all the penguins.

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They retreat with their egg on their feet,
and that destrutures the colony.

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So it's an enormous stress.

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Imagine in a colony of 20,000 couples,
what that could provoke.

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(Video) (Screams of penguins)

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We were able to start a study
on this King penguin,

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with, as you'll see,
a robot that approaches them

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and causes individuals without eggs

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and so not defending
their territory to move apart.

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In contrast, those who do have eggs -

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you can see a curious little one
following... (Laughter)

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...as the robot progresses -

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those who have eggs
defend their territory

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with their beaks and fins.

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So this will help us -
and we are starting to do this -

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to identify and localize them

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within centimetres, thanks
to an extremely advanced GPS,

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and to know how the animals
are distributed in the colony,

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and so how the colony is structured

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depending on their experience
and their age,

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and this will allow us
to understand for the first time,

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how a colony operates.

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I will show you now

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that when this robot 
is equipped with a camera,

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you can easily see
that they defend their territory.

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The feeling of it going faster
although it is the same speed

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is because the camera is on the robot.

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You see, they use their beak -

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this is what causes their heart rate 
to increase by 16% -

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to attack the robot.

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Sometimes, it was hard to get through,
so we just built another one.

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It took us a year because we're pushing 
the boundaries in miniaturization.

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This new robot being a little smaller 
will be easier to move through.

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Let's this robot park itself
near the biologist who is driving it,

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and let's move on to the closest
parent of the King penguin

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that is the Emperor penguin -

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the star of the movie
in "March of the Penguins."

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By the way, it is the same colony
in Adelie Land where the film was shot.

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There, I encountered a problem.

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Why?

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Because the Emperor penguin -
as you may have seen in this movie -

NOTE Paragraph

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doesn't try to defend its territory.

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It is an exception in the animal kingdom.

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Most animals,
except some species

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which just happen
to live in cold regions,

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show a behavior of territorial defense.

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So, what happens
is that the Emperor penguins,

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although a lot more powerful
than the King penguin,

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when they notice the robot approaching,

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they recoil because they don't have
this territorial defense reflex.

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They do the same thing 
as the Royal penguins you just saw

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on the outskirts of the colony
who moved away when the robot arrived

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but did it because
they didn't have any eggs.

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Why don't they defend their territory?

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In winter, they huddle together.

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This is what enables them
to fast for four months.

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They halve their speed of emaciation
by huddling together.

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And thus - I created some suspense here -

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I'm going to show you
the solution we have adopted ...

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(Exclamations of surprise) (Laughter)

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... by concealing the small
robot in a fake chick.

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Now look at the behavior
of the adult and the chick.

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Not only do they let the robot come close,

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but their movements indicate
that they are singing

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to try to communicate with it.

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And this little chick
can even be part ...

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(Exclamations)

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... of a nursery of chicks.

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But we wanted to go further.

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As a matter of fact,
in the coldest moments in Adelie Land

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in some colonies, the temperature 
can go down to 50 °C below zero.

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For the robot to be autonomous
enough during that period,

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we'd need batteries
that are two times its size.

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And with a little chick, 
we can only hide a small-sized robot.

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In addition, the artificial
little chick can only be used

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when other little chicks are around.

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(Laughter)

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So, I gave myself another challenge:

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the fabrication of a fake
adult Emperor penguin.

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(Laughter)

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I had proof that we can fool them, 
you're witnesses to this.

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But it turned out to be a true
technological challenge.

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Making an upright robot
wasn't an option for us

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as it would fall over straight away -
we have winds of 150 to 200 km/h.

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So the idea was to build
a sliding penguin.

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Although you can't hear it,
there is a sound ...

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(Slight noise)

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There you go! Listen. It is the sound
of the robot sliding on the ice.

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We built a first prototype
with a magnificent costume

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made by the best experts
in the movie industry -

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here you can see the team
of young engineers around me -

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a penguin equipped with crawlers

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since we must move on ice,
on the pack ice.

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We sent it to Adelie Land.

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(Laughter)

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Now the results have been mixed

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because, as you can see,
it arouses curiosity, interest ...

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(Laughter)

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... from the unemployed penguins.

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As for the brooders,
they are still suspicious.

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We have two possible explanations.

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This magnificent costume, in fact,

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does not reflect the image it should

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because they see through
the ultraviolet spectrum.

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Furthermore, the crawlers
make too much noise.

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For two years, we have been 
constructing a new robot

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that will have real feathers -

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we came back with intact corpses
from Adelie Land, found in the colony.

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Taxidermists from the museum
are currently preparing the skin.

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It will have a real feathering

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that will give a true image
in the ultraviolet spectrum.

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It will be able to move its fins.

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It won't have crawlers.

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It will slide on its hull,
as you can see here,

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and the noise of the sliding will mask 
the noise of the wheels that annoys them.

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It will have a speaker because it
will communicate with the real penguins.

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You see, while we often oppose
technology and Nature,

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here we have an initiative
in which technological development

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will allow us to better understand Nature 
in order to better protect it .

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We are also in the interface
between ethics and science

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since it means developing
our scientific knowledge

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by reducing the disturbance to animals

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that, as you've seen, also reduces
the risks of scientific bias.

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Thank you for listening.

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(Applause)