Biomechatronics is not just biomimetics

Abstract

The idea of biomechatronics is based on the observation, that for mechatronic as well as for living systems a high degree of functional integration is characteristic. This allows biomimetic approaches without logical constraints. On the other hand, modularization is a major strength of mechatronics, while in life sciences “module” is a functional abstraction (e.g. the columns in the visual cortices of brains) with mostly diffuse structural boundaries. In practice, those contradictions turn out to be only of theoretical relevance, since biomechatronics is a strategy to gain better technical solutions, which has to be evaluated by its results, it is no ideology. For bio-robotics, the biomimetic principles of intensive use of compliance and of massive under-actuation may well be embodied in modular structures, providing integrated functions.