Biobotics is a field that is revolutionizing robotics by mimicking the principles of nature, greatly improving the efficiency of robots by replicating the complex structures of living things. In the future, this technology will profoundly change the relationship between humans and robots, and the social and ethical issues that will arise along the way need to be discussed.
Modern science and technology has advanced at a tremendous pace, but many people still believe that robots are a long way off from becoming a reality. Even though robots in movies have gone beyond walking to running and flying like humans, the development of such robots has always seemed to be an unconquerable mountain for humans. Human beings have tried many times to develop robots, but the reality has been much more difficult than they thought. Human-made robots have barely started to walk, but when they stand, they are forced to adopt an awkward posture, and even the slightest loss of balance can cause them to fall. To overcome these limitations, humans are now not just building robots with their own knowledge, but have begun to look at and copy the “creatures” in nature that are already great robots, and this choice is contributing to the rapid improvement of human robotics technology.
Nature has spent billions of years perfecting creatures with the tools of evolution, and the resulting creatures are capable of performing complex and sophisticated functions that human technology cannot even begin to imagine. As you read this, you are focusing your eyes, moving your head, and blinking your eyes, all while simultaneously perceiving and reacting to a myriad of sensations around you in a split second. All of these senses and reactions are possible thanks to the sophisticated creatures that nature has created. Now that humans have realized that there are such wonderful robots around, they are determined to improve upon them, rather than trying to create their own.
This field of robotics is called biorobotics. It’s robotics based on bio. Biorobotics goes beyond mere technological imitation and presents a new paradigm that applies the principles of nature to solve problems that humans have been unable to solve. We can feel the power of biobotics through robots like DASH. A running robot made with pre-biobotics robotics technology measures the robot’s speed and acceleration every second to recognize the current situation and adjust its movement through a complex process of controlling motors that move the joints of the robot’s legs to move the legs to the appropriate position. This approach would naturally make the robot large, heavy, and slow, and even then, it would be prone to falling over uneven terrain.
DASH, however, is a robot that is inspired by how cockroaches run, and can walk at very high speeds without the need for complex structures, sensors, or controls, relying solely on its motors to keep it from falling over. It’s similar to how humans run without thinking about how to move each leg. This application of nature’s wisdom greatly improves the efficiency and practicality of robots, and is expected to revolutionize many more fields in the future. Biobotics is making this possible.
While there is a lot of research going on in the field of robotics, very little has been realized yet. While robots like Asimo are making a big splash, they’re still little more than decorative objects with no real use. However, as robots continue to improve and pass a critical mass where they can actually be used in everyday life, they will become inseparable from humans. This will happen gradually, and we need to discuss the various social and ethical issues that will arise along the way. Biobotics will play a big role in getting us there, as robots at this level will need to be very close to living things.
In the movie Bicentennial Man, a robot’s body is replaced with biological parts, one by one, until it eventually becomes human and dies. While this scenario is still science fiction, as biobotics continues to advance, it will not be impossible to create robots that are truly lifelike. Instead of just copying large structures like arms, legs, fingers, and pelvis from living creatures, we’ll be able to go a step deeper and replicate muscles, blood, joints, ligaments, nerves, and ultimately even cells. These advances will open up the possibility of creating new forms of life that go beyond mere mechanical movement, to include sentience and consciousness. There is both excitement and concern about how far advances in biobotics will push the boundaries of robotics and how they will impact human society.
