If it walks like a duck...

...then it might be a robot. Although this blog deals mainly with esthetic issues relating to the human brain's response to design, organic sources of inspiration are being used by many different robot designers/engineers.

Dr. Ayers is one of a handful of robotics researchers who regard animals as their muses. Their field is often referred to as biomimetics, and the researchers who are developing robotic lobsters, flies, dogs, fish, snakes, geckos and cockroaches believe that machines inspired by biology will be able to operate in places where today's generation of robots can't go.

"Animals have adapted to any niche where we'd ever want to operate a robot," Dr. Ayers said. His RoboLobster, for instance, is being designed to hunt for mines that float in shallow waters or are buried beneath beaches, a harsh environment where live lobsters have no trouble maintaining sure footing.

Another researcher, Howie Choset of Carnegie Mellon University, has been testing sinuous segmented robots based on snakes and elephant trunks that may be the perfect machines to search for survivors inside the rubble of structures destroyed by explosions or natural disasters.

Link (requires registration or use Bugmenot.com)