Research Trends and Future Perspectives in Marine Biomimicking Robotics

• Main Authors: Jacopo Aguzzi, Corrado Costa, Marcello Calisti, Valerio Funari, Sergio Stefanni, Roberto Danovaro, Helena I. Gomes, Fabrizio Vecchi, Lewis R. Dartnell, Peter Weiss, Kathrin Nowak, Damianos Chatzievangelou, Simone Marini
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: marine biomimetics; bibliographic statistics; energy provision; biomaterials; locomotor designs; optimal energy consumption
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/11/3778

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.