Energy Constraints and Behavioral Complexity: The Case of a Robot with a Living Core

The new scenarios of contemporary adaptive robotics seem to suggest a transformation of the traditional methods. In the search for new approaches to the control of adaptive autonomous systems, the mind becomes a fundamental source of inspiration. In this paper we anticipate, through the use of simulation, the cognitive and behavioral properties that emerge from a recent prototype robotic platform, EcoBot, a family of bio-mechatronic symbionts provided with an `artificial metabolism', that has been under physical development during recent years. Its energy reliance on a biological component and the consequent limitation of its supplied energy determine a special kind of dynamic coupling between the robot and its environment. Rather than just an obstacle, energetic constraints become the opportunity for the development of a rich set of behavioral and cognitive properties.