Biomimicry: Festo's Bionic Learning Network

Festo is a German engineering firm specializing in automation and manufacturing technology- an industry seeing more integration with artificial intelligence and robotics. They've been recently promoting bionic prototypes borrowing form and function from nature. These inventions illustrate how nature's efficiencies can be successfully adapted with advanced networking, intelligence and materials.

Most of these are not immediately implementable solutions; rather they serve as an abstract showcase of Festo's thinking for the future of factories.

BionicANTS

These are cybernetic, 3D-printed ants that are capable of autonomously organizing as a group to carry out complex tasks. The hive-mind organizational structure found in ant colonies could be mimicked to create a new approach to swarm-robotics.

This projects shows the overall vision of an automated, intelligent system capable of organizing multitudes of individual actors to cooperate on complex tasks. Not to say these robotic workers need to come in ant-form, but it is interesting to imagine an advanced versions in the future; synthetic organic tissue used for their multiple limbs which truly achieve life-like finesse and articulation to accomplish a variety of tasks in an industrial setting. There could be an array of models, from minuscule to the size of a small car.

The artificial bio-materials and internal components could be protected by an exoskeleton chitin, allowing these crawler to work in normally hazardous conditions. Having four to six limbs would allow for agile movement across a variety of terrain or weather conditions.

eMotion Butterflies

Super lightweight materials, complex feats of autonomy, and biomimetic design. While this prototype has no immediate industrial use, it directs attention toward efficient biomimetic design choices. They work well to achieve natural butterfly flight- directed by an indoor GPS system. The simplicity of design makes for minimal power consumption, and could potentially serve as a great research platform with the addition of sensory arrays.

FlexShapeGripper

Here is an example of something immediately applicable in an industrial setting. By adapting the incredible ability of a chameleon's tongue, FESTO created a gripping device that uses a fraction of the energy typically required. It is compatible with many object types, sizes and quantities. Elastic silicon form-fits around objects of any shape, reducing the need for multiple grippers or switching them out on the same arm.

Attaching this arm to an autonomous factory robot could make an impact on operations and time to complete tasks. This could reduce the need for re-tooling and the down-time associated with re-configuration as a facility changes function.

Other designs from the this eclectic portfolio include bionic kangaroos, robotic handling arms derived from elephant trunks, robotic jellyfish, AquaPenguins, AirPenguins, and the list goes on. Find out more by looking through Festo's Bionic Learning Network page.