From cell to robot (Paperback)

Bionics or biomimetics is an interdisciplinary scientific approach to apply naturally developed biological systems, methods and solutions to the study and design of technology as an exclusive mutuality between life sciences and technology sciences, such as robotics. Robots are artificial agents which have much in common with biological agents in case of the need to adapt to their environment. Soft robots have a rather flexible skin or shape, propulsing itself with some type of crawling movement and are able to deform and adapt to obstacle, which is advantageous over classical wheeled or legged propulsion. Most of bio-inspired climbing robots have the disadvantage of using legs for locomotion. The idea is to find a new biological model for a bi-inspired robotic locomotion device. Surprisingly, single cells, such as amoebae or animal tissue cells have a deformable shape and the ability to crawl on surfaces by adhesion. A perfect model for a new bio-inspired locomotion device. This book demonstrates that it is possible to transfer the biophysical locomotion mechanism of cell migration to a computational simulation model of a soft robot with a crawling cell like locomotion.