Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Alex Ellery

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Interests: space robotics; design of serviceable satellites; on-orbit satellite servicing; design and analysis of planetary rovers; design of entry, descent and landing systems for planetary exploration; robotic drills and instrumentation for astrobiological surveys; biomimetic design for space applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bioinspired engineering has become increasingly popular over the last decade or more, whereby biological organisms have inspired engineering solutions to human problems. Biological organisms are crafted through evolution by natural selection, permitting solutions that are inherently different from those designed through rational engineering processes. Bioinspiration, however, does not imply blind aping of biology but requires the human engineer to abstract biological solutions in form suitable to the engineered application. For space application, we must abstract biological principles from terrestrial biology that evolved on Earth and apply them to alien environments for which no extraterrestrial organisms exist as models. The space environment, and planetary environments in particular, offers a diverse variety of physical conditions that are challenging to the engineer and require considerable ingenuity of design in our exploration machines. Nature potentially offers lessons that can be applied to the engineering of spacecraft, landers, rovers, submersible, aircraft, and other vehicles for exploring beyond Earth. This Special Issue on “Biomimetic Design and Techniques for Space Application” seeks to bring together a snapshot of state-of-the-art biomimetic approaches to all aspects of space mission analysis and design, including biomimetic applications to space robotics. We envisage that providing open access will offer a wide readership with a broad exposure to biomimetics in challenging environments that will spur further growth in biomimetics in providing innovative solutions to the difficult problems encountered in spaceflight. We invite submissions across the broadest spectrum of bioinspiration applied to space exploration.

Prof. Dr. Alex Ellery
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomimetics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

biomaterials
structure and biomechanism

mobility systems
cybernetics
neural networks
evolutionary techniques
sensors
vision
actuators
bioelectronics
artificial intelligence
biorobotics
scientific instruments

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

16 pages, 27765 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Symmetric Three Degree of Freedom Tensegrity Mechanism with Dual Operation Modes for Robot Actuation

by Tianyuan Wang and Mark A. Post

Biomimetics 2021, 6(2), 30; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics6020030 - 18 May 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3424

Abstract

Tensegrity robots that use bio-inspired structures have many superior properties over conventional robots with regard to strength, weight, compliance and robustness, which are indispensable to planetary exploration and harsh environment applications. Existing research has presented various tensegrity robots with abundant capabilities in broad scenarios but mostly not focused on articulation and manipulability. In this paper, we propose a novel tensegrity mechanism for robot actuation which greatly improves the agility and efficiency compared with existing ones. The design integrates two separate tensegrity substructures inspired by shoulder and hip joints of the human body and features a similar form to a hexapod platform. It mitigates detrimental antagonistic forces in the structural network for optimising actuation controllability and efficiency. We validated the design both on a prototype and in a Chrono Engine simulation that represents the first physically accurate simulation of a wheeled tensegrity robot. It can reach up to approximately

58 . 9^{\circ}

59 . 4^{\circ}

and

47 . 1^{\circ}

in pitch, yaw and roll motion, respectively. The mechanism demonstrates good agility and controllability as an actuated robot linkage while preserving desirable properties of tensegrity structures. The design would potentially inspire more possibilities of agile tensegrity implementations that enable future robots with enhanced compliance, robustness and efficiency without a tradeoff. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomimetic Design and Techniques for Space Applications II)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

31 pages, 2508 KiB

Open AccessReview

Are There Biomimetic Lessons from Genetic Regulatory Networks for Developing a Lunar Industrial Ecology?

by Alex Ellery

Biomimetics 2021, 6(3), 50; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics6030050 - 09 Aug 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3802

Abstract

We examine the prospect for employing a bio-inspired architecture for a lunar industrial ecology based on genetic regulatory networks. The lunar industrial ecology resembles a metabolic system in that it comprises multiple chemical processes interlinked through waste recycling. Initially, we examine lessons from factory organisation which have evolved into a bio-inspired concept, the reconfigurable holonic architecture. We then examine genetic regulatory networks and their application in the biological cell cycle. There are numerous subtleties that would be challenging to implement in a lunar industrial ecology but much of the essence of biological circuitry (as implemented in synthetic biology, for example) is captured by traditional electrical engineering design with emphasis on feedforward and feedback loops to implement robustness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomimetic Design and Techniques for Space Applications II)

► Show Figures