Beyond Biomimetics: Towards Insect/Machine Hybrid Controllers for Space Applications

摘要

Robots for space applications require a level of autonomy while operating in highly unstructured environments that current control architectures cannot manage successfully. We investigated including pre-developed insect brain tissue into the control architecture of space exploratory vehicles. A doubly hybrid controller is proposed that hinges around the 'insect-in-a-cockpit' concept towards an evolution of the classical deliberative/reactive paradigm, featuring a biological (insect brain) high-level deliberative module coupled with low-level reactive behaviors embedded in a robot. The proposed concept, its design methodology and functional description of the submodules are presented, along with a preliminary feasibility assessment mainly derived from an in-depth review of the state of the art.