Bio-inspired robot control systems for space application

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Robotic systems for space application require enhanced autonomy with minimal human interaction. Although much emphasis in robotics has been at the cognitive level, more recent emphasis has been in situated robotics with mixed success but which has reached a limit in scaling to more complex behaviours. A biomimetic approach provides another level of investigation - in biological animals, morphological structures have co-evolved with their control structures. Indeed, structural and mechanical configuration in biological systems is exploited by the control system. Furthermore, the interaction of the organism with its environment is the driver of biological evolution (as this defines survival until procreation). This aspect of agent-environment interaction has been much neglected yet it is fundamental in biology. Part of this neglect results from different materials used in biology and engineering - engineering materials are designed for stiffness to deformation while biological materials evolved with toughness to fracture. Structural and mechanical compliance is exploited by biological systems as a dynamic buffer to physical interaction with the environment. Such dynamic interaction forces would otherwise be chaotic as inherent time delays of feedback control loops generate instabilities. Feedforward mechanisms are also exploited in biology to act as predictors but these also have limitations. Furthermore, biological systems make use of multiple control loops including tight control loops in which the concept of sensor and actuator are blurred during exploratory activity. This program of research seeks to further understand these aspects of robot-environment interaction by exploiting lessons from biology, thereby generating more robust autonomous robotic space systems. This will be applied to manipulators, rovers, sample acquisition devices and deployable scientific instruments for space application due to the need for remote but robust and adaptive autonomy. There are several approaches to be exploited which shall be be explored in this research programme.