Insect Power

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Insects are marvels of miniaturisation. Despite their small size, they have many desirable capabilities such as sophisiticated locomotion and flight. They walk up vertical walls or belly-up hanging from the ceiling, they fly safely avoiding obstacles with high reliability and minimal delay. They can localise mates over distance of kilometers using their sense of smell. We are usually not surprised by these capabilities, taking them for granted, but in fact, it is amazing how they are implemented in these tiny organisms. The economy of the design of the insect body and their sensory and motor capabilities are thus attacting the interest of engineers. The relative simplicity in comparison to mammals is also of great interest.

Recent book publications and a special Science Channel program by the Japan Science and Technology Agency reflect the rise in importance of the potential that insect models can provide to society. In particular, autonomous robots can be constructed mimicking insects and the insects sensor of smell can be harnessed to implement odorant sensors. We can still learn a lot from insect brains and behaviour that can contribute to applications in various fields.

Just 100 years have passed since Fabre published his seminal account on insects. Now we are witnessing rapid advances towards the understanding of how insect brains work with the combination of physiology, anatomy, simulation, and engineering approaches that are culminating in the implementation of robots emulating the astonishing behavioural capabilities of insects.


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