Research

Duke University researchers have demonstrated Argus, a 20-legged robot whose sea-urchin-like body gives it near-uniform motion and perception in every direction.

Researchers have developed printed magnetic sensors made from naturally sourced and lower-toxicity materials including iron, iron oxide, cellulose, and starch.

Researchers at the University of Osaka and collaborators have developed a cyborg insect system that reads heartbeat activity, neural signal features, and body movement from cockroaches.

Researchers demonstrated a lightweight navigation system inspired by honeybee learning flights that allows small drones to return home using compact visual memories rather than large-scale mapping systems.

Bosch researchers developed a decentralized collaborative mapping system inspired by ant pheromone trails and swarm intelligence. Vehicles share virtual pheromone markers to distribute mapping effort and resolve uncertainty without central coordination, translating stigmergic biological communication into autonomous transport infrastructure.

Just call these tiny autonomous construction robots “antdroids” Biomimicry is a significant driver in robot design; like ants, RAnts are too small to possess human-level cognition and memory, so if they’re going to achieve complex goals, they need to out-source, or exbody, their data-processing to their environment.

Honeybee-inspired swarm framework targets resilient planetary exploration The history of planetary exploration has long been a chronicle of singular, heroic machines.

Researchers from SUPSI and ETH Zurich developed a firefly-inspired visible-light communication system for nano-drone swarms using LEDs and convolutional neural networks for message decoding.

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong demonstrated small snail-inspired modular robots that can physically attach to one another using suction-based coupling.

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.