1. Research Trends and Future Perspectives in Marine Biomimicking Robotics.
- Author
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Aguzzi, Jacopo, Costa, Corrado, Calisti, Marcello, Funari, Valerio, Stefanni, Sergio, Danovaro, Roberto, Gomes, Helena I., Vecchi, Fabrizio, Dartnell, Lewis R., Weiss, Peter, Nowak, Kathrin, Chatzievangelou, Damianos, and Marini, Simone
- Subjects
MICROBIAL fuel cells ,SOFT robotics ,ROBOTICS ,MECHATRONICS ,ENERGY consumption ,CLUSTER analysis (Statistics) - 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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