Deep Biomimetic Robotics

Abstract

Biomimicry is a major driving force behind robot research. Many studies and robot developments have been conducted so far, but robotics is still unable to move away from mechanical movements and functions. The main reason for this is that conventional robotics has replaced living creatures' bodies with a collection of simple mechanical parts that mimic their external movements. In our study, the body of the robot is regarded as a continuum in which various flexible tissues adhere to each other, and the tissues inside the body are imitated (deep imitation). We have discovered that the imitation of the internal structure of the body produces functions unexpected by designers and phenomena that are difficult to understand in conventional engineering and zoology through the anatomy and reconstruction of dog and horse legs. Through the collaboration between soft robotics and zoology, we will unravel the dynamics and motion of flexible tissues inside the animal body and clarify the design theory of ambiguous flexible tissue, which is the opposite of conventional robotics aiming at accuracy and rigidity and will open a new field of robotics.