Technical Opinion: From Animal Behaviour to Autonomous Robots

As the scope for robotic applications extends from structured to unstructured and more complex environments, autonomy has become a desideratum for most of today's robots. The practice of handcrafting robots does not give them the capability to cope with unforeseen situations. Although several research contributions have been made towards robot autonomy, we are nowhere near the level of autonomy that is exhibited by animals, even ones at the lowest biological level of organisation. This is because animals are born with innate capabilities, both in their body structure and intelligence, to survive and develop in their milieus; their behaviours and sometimes their morphological traits can evolve to adapt to persistent changes in their habitats. For example, Corcoran et al [1] studied the co-evolutionary battle between the bat and the moth.