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Beyond Biomimetics: Towards Insect/Machine Hybrid Controllers for Space Applications

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 7-8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1163/156855309x443034

1568-5535

Antonella Benvenuto, Fabrizio Sergi, Giovanni Di Pino, Tobias Seidl, Domenico Campolo, Dino Accoto, Eugenio Guglielmelli,

Robotic Path Planning Algorithms

Robots for space applications require a level of autonomy while operating in highly unstructured environments that current control architectures cannot manage successfully. We investigated including pre-developed insect brain tissue into the control architecture of space exploratory vehicles. A doubly hybrid controller is proposed that hinges around the 'insect-in-a-cockpit' concept towards an evolution of the classical deliberative/reactive paradigm, featuring a biological (insect brain) high-level deliberative module coupled with low-level reactive behaviors embedded in a robot. The proposed concept, its design methodology and functional description of the submodules are presented, along with a preliminary feasibility assessment mainly derived from an in-depth review of the state of the art.