Bio-Inspired Robotics

The Bio-inspired Robotics research area studies biological species (e.g., bees, spiders, snakes, and humans) and evolutionary processes to understand how to incorporate those capabilities into robot systems. The research aims to understand how biological behaviors can result in novel robot capabilities, robustness to environmental factors, and even new robot morphologies. It is not necessary for robots to always mimic biological processes, but species that have evolved over millions of years demonstrate unique capabilities and resilience. Such biological capabilities can inspire new designs, algorithms, and functions within robotic systems.

The research in this area is grounded in a wide variety of application domains. Distributed sensing and communication are important for real-world robotics applications in disaster response, marine robotics, and other field environments where partial observations and a lack of communication can impede the use of classical algorithms. Fundamental algorithms (such as biologically inspired consensus decision-making or evolutionary algorithms) can enable swarms of robots to reach decisions in shorter timeframes. New bio-inspired robot morphologies result in robots that can access spaces no other current robot systems have access to today. The development of novel implantable rehabilitative devices for improving quality of life is based on the human musculoskeletal control system.