Research

Interspecies communication networks about threats can shape animal communities, as many species produce alarm calls while eavesdropping on those of others, resulting in information flow crossing ecological niches and taxonomic boundaries.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute researchers developed a bat-inspired sensing and navigation system that allows palm-sized drones to move through smoke, fog, and visually degraded environments using ultrasound and lightweight onboard AI.

Researchers evaluated ant-inspired robotic coordination strategies for autonomous mining operations, including distributed task allocation and tandem partitioning approaches. The work focuses on improving efficiency and resilience in hazardous industrial environments.

A lightweight butterfly-inspired robot achieves fully autonomous flapping-wing flight using bio-inspired control of wing motion and body dynamics. The system operates without tails or external stabilization.

A Springer Nature Research Communities article describes a plant-inspired adaptive façade using hygromorphic, biobased 4D-printed materials that change shape in response to weather.

Scientific Reports published a bio-inspired UAV swarm framework for search and rescue, combining thermal sensing, distributed coordination, and optimization methods including Particle Swarm Optimization, Grey Wolf Optimizer, and Ant Colony Optimization.

Researchers found that adding small random movements (“wiggling”) to robots in dense swarms prevents congestion and improves throughput. The approach mirrors biological systems where stochastic motion helps ants, cells, and animals avoid deadlock in crowded environments.

A newly reported biomimetic robotic fish uses undulatory propulsion inspired by real fish to reduce disturbance in aquaculture environments while collecting sensor data.

Researchers demonstrated a material made from simple interlocking elements that can transition between rigid and fluid-like states depending on applied forces.

Not only do sperm whale have a form of “alphabet” and form vowels within their vocalizations but the structure of these vowels behaves in the same way as human speech, the new study has found.