Beyond biomimetics: towards insect/machine hybrid controllers for space applications

Robots for space applications require a level of autonomy while operating in highly unstructured environments that current control architectures cannot manage successfully. We investigated including predeveloped insect brain tissue into the control architecture of space exploratory vehicles. A doubly hybrid controller is proposed that hinges around the einsect-in-a-cockpitf concept towards an evolution of the classical deliberative/reactive paradigm, featuring a biological (insect brain) high-level deliberative module coupled with low-level reactive behaviors embedded in a robot. The proposed concept, its design methodology and functional description of the submodules are presented, along with a preliminary feasibility assessment mainly derived from an in-depth review of the state of the art.