Research Trends and Future Perspectives in Marine Biomimicking Robotics
Jacopo Aguzzi, Corrado Costa, Marcello Calisti, Valerio Funari, Sérgio Stefanni, Roberto Danovaro, Helena I. Gomes, F. Vecchi, Lewis Dartnell, Peter Weiß, Kathrin Nowak, Damianos Chatzievangelou, Simone Marini
Abstract
Mechatronic and soft robotics are taking inspiration from the animal kingdom to create new high-performance robots. Here, we focused on marine biomimetic research and used innovative bibliographic statistics tools, to highlight established and emerging knowledge domains. A total of 6980 scientific publications retrieved from the Scopus database (1950-2020), evidencing a sharp research increase in 2003-2004. Clustering analysis of countries collaborations showed two major Asian-North America and European clusters. Three significant areas appeared: (i) energy provision, whose advancement mainly relies on microbial fuel cells, (ii) biomaterials for not yet fully operational soft-robotic solutions; and finally (iii), design and control, chiefly oriented to locomotor designs. In this scenario, marine biomimicking robotics still lacks solutions for the long-lasting energy provision, which presently hinders operation autonomy. In the research environment, identifying natural processes by which living organisms obtain energy is thus urgent to sustain energy-demanding tasks while, at the same time, the natural designs must increasingly inform to optimize energy consumption.