Organismal engineering: Toward a robotic taxonomic key for devices using organic materials

Abstract

Engineers are often inspired by the behavioral flexibility and robustness seen in nature. Recent advances in tissue engineering now allow the use of organic components in robotic applications. By integrating organic and synthetic components, researchers are moving toward the development of engineered organisms whose structural framework, actuation, sensing, and control are partially or completely organic. This review discusses recent exciting work demonstrating how organic components can be used for all facets of robot development. On the basis of this analysis, we propose a robotic taxonomic key to guide the field toward a unified lexicon for device description.