Affiliations 

  • 1 Biologically Inspired Robotics Laboratory, Department of Engineering , University of Cambridge , Tumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ , UK
  • 2 Mechanical Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering , Malaysia Campus, Monash University, Jl. Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway 47500 , Malaysia
Interface Focus, 2016 Aug 06;6(4):20160016.
PMID: 27499843 DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2016.0016

Abstract

Sensor morphology, the morphology of a sensing mechanism which plays a role of shaping the desired response from physical stimuli from surroundings to generate signals usable as sensory information, is one of the key common aspects of sensing processes. This paper presents a structured review of researches on bioinspired sensor morphology implemented in robotic systems, and discusses the fundamental design principles. Based on literature review, we propose two key arguments: first, owing to its synthetic nature, biologically inspired robotics approach is a unique and powerful methodology to understand the role of sensor morphology and how it can evolve and adapt to its task and environment. Second, a consideration of an integrative view of perception by looking into multidisciplinary and overarching mechanisms of sensor morphology adaptation across biology and engineering enables us to extract relevant design principles that are important to extend our understanding of the unfinished concepts in sensing and perception.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.