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Updated: Jan 5, 2026

The Modular Design and Production of an Intelligent Robot Based on a Closed-Loop Control Strategy
Published on: October 14, 2017
A System-of-Systems Bio-Inspired Design Process: Conceptual Design and Physical Prototype of a Reconfigurable Robot
Ning Tan1, Zhenglong Sun2,3, Rajesh Elara Mohan4
1Key Laboratory of Machine Intelligence and Advanced Computing, Ministry of Education, School of Data and Computer Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Abstract:
Modern engineering problems require solutions with multiple functionalities in order to meet their practical needs to handle a variety of applications in different scenarios. Conventional design paradigms for single design purpose may not be able to satisfy this requirement efficiently. This paper proposes a novel system-of-systems bio-inspired design method framed in a solution-driven bio-inspired design paradigm. The whole design process consists of eight steps, that is, (1) biological solutions identification, (2) biological solutions definition/champion biological solutions, (3) principle extraction from each champion biological solution, (4) merging of extracted principles, (5) solution reframing, (6) problem search, (7) problem definition, and (8) principles application & implementation. The steps are elaborated and a case study of reconfigurable robots is presented following these eight steps. The design originates from the multimodal locomotion capabilities of two species (i.e., spiders and primates) and is analyzed based on the Pugh analysis. The resulting robotic platform could be potentially used for urban patrolling purposes.
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