How to Catch a Robot Rat: When Biology Inspires Innovation

by Agnès Guillot and Jean-Arcady Meyer. 2010. 226 pages. MIT Press. $29.95.

Human engineers draw some of their best inspirations from nature, according to technology researchers Agnès Guillot and Jean-Arcady Meyer in How to Catch a Robot Rat. The authors introduce readers to “the new bionics,” a field that integrates biology and engineering.

Guillot and Meyer share examples of recent innovations in new bionics. For example, observations of the iridescence of butterfly wings gave rise to new high-resolution video screens. And studying the powerful auditory systems of owls, which can track even the most muffled sound in a nighttime forest, clued a German company in on how to build an acoustic camera whose hyper-sensitive microphones can locate and capture sounds inaudible to humans.

Many more breakthroughs are soon to come. Some aquariums have debuted robotic fish that look and swim almost exactly like real fish. Prototype walking robots move faster than present-day ones because their designs are based on the bodies of cockroaches. And new drone airplanes have wings that flap like birds and insects.

Guillot and Meyer are hopeful that, over time, new bionics will create robots that behave like animals, too: They will learn, think, and adapt to changes in their environments. How to Catch a Robot Rat is an engaging introduction to revolutionary new fields in robotics that is appropriate for experts and general audiences alike.