The INCOSE Nature Systems Working Group hosted a webinar on September 26/2014 by Hod Lipson on adaptive robotic systems that can handle unstructured or unforeseen circumstances without the control functions being 'designed in'. Rather than emulating specific outcomes of evolution, Lipson's team is emulating evolution itself, starting with a collection of components, allowing connections to form and then combining/mutating/selecting the ones that perform the best. The first attempts involved computer modeling and simulation, including various forms of 'soft robots' that evolved the ability to move. Other projects involved physical robots where the controllers were able to evolve with the goal of robots that could jump, run and gallop.
SK Gupta discusses the value of biologically inspired robots in terms of "useful tools to discuss and teach science and mathematics", practical applications such as exploring areas where traditional robots cannot cope and next generation prosthetics, as well as more speculative applications. The challenge is identifying a clear need where bio-inspiration is critical and capable at delivering the solution.
"Changing the way we teach engineering students to think about developing products and devices."
Edited by Robert Allen (2010), The Ivy Press Limited, Lewes, UK.
Also available on Amazon.ca
This recently published book includes a wealth of natural strategies and shows how they are related to existing as well as future technologies.
An award-winning IST research team has developed highly unusual mini-robots, or swarm-bots, that work as a team to overcome challenges. While their cooperative behaviour is inspired by the actions of the tiny ant, their abilities could eventually take them to outer space.
2008/10/20 updated with a comment pointing to a weblog entry with additional information about RoboTuna and complementary work by Prof. Joseph Ayers