Biomimicry as Applied to Space Robotics with Specific Reference to the Martian Environment

The reverse engineering of biological organisms has recently become a significant research effort to solve engineering problems by learning from biological solutions to similar problems imposed by the natural environment. Such biological solutions offer insights into alternative strategies for designing engineering systems. Biological systems represent millions of years (billions of years in the case of microbes) of trial-anderror learning through natural selection according to the most stringent of metrics – survival. There is thus much that engineers can learn from biology to emulate in their design of engineering systems – this is biomimicry. It is our goal to assess the current stateof-the-art in biomimicry and to apply this knowledge to the next generation of space robotics. We are currently involved with a study through the European Space Agency where the main focus is to examine the biomimicry-related research activities through Europe and around the world and ascertain whether these research activities could be inspiration to create innovative space systems. Primarily, we are investigating four different biomimetic locomotion systems: walking, flying, digging, and slithering. However, this study does not stop simply at locomotion. We are also investigating biomimetic materials, mechanisms and processes, behaviour and control, sensors, and adaptability. The prime focus of this paper, however, will be bio-inspired locomotion and autonomous control.