Four prototypes of biomimetic sensors have been designed and implemented for flight control of a robotic flying insect. The ocelli use four photodiodes to detect changes in light intensity in the surrounding. The halteres use piezoactuated vibrating structures to sense body rotational velocities via the Coriolis forces. The optic flow sensors consist of linear arrays of elementary motion detect...

We report the first biomimetic syntheses of (-)-gochnatiolides A-C and (-)-ainsliadimer B based on our proposed biogenetic pathway. Our synthesis features one-pot cascade transformations including Saegusa oxidation, intermolecular Diels-Alder cycloaddition, and radical-mediated allylic oxidation, which allow for the rapid generation of (-)-gochnatiolides A-C in a collective manner. We also disc...

This paper introduces a biomimetic strategy for the fabrication of asymmetrical, three-dimensional electronic devices modeled on the folding of a chain of polypeptide structural motifs into a globular protein. Millimeter-size polyhedra-patterned with logic devices, wires, and solder dots-were connected in a linear string by using flexible wire. On self-assembly, the string folded spontaneously ...

In this paper we explain the mechanical design of the robot herring that we have developed. The use of mechanical accumulators is a fundamental issue in the design of this robot. Two different types of mechanical accumulators are implemented and tested as a spine on the robot. We argue that using an Euler buckled spine, on a robot fish, will give more efficient robots and a naturally occurring ...

For underwater adhesives with biocompatible and more flexible bonds using biomimetic adhesive groups, DOPA-like adhesive molecules were modified with cyanoacrylates to obtain different repeating units and chain length copolymers. The goal of this work is to copy the mechanisms of underwater bonding to create synthetic water-borne underwater medical adhesives through blending of the modified DOP...

Studies towards the biomimetic synthesis of cardinalin 3 are described. Despite the successful enantioselective synthesis of the monomeric pyranonaphthoquinone ventiloquinone L, it subsequently failed to undergo a proposed biomimetic homodimerisation to cardinalin 3 using a range of oxidants. However, treatment of a related naphthopyran with cerium ammonium nitrate (CAN) facilitated a tandem bi...

Cytochrome P-450 mono-oxygenase enzymes play a key role in the oxidative transformation in living systems. As one kind of cytochrome P-450 models, metalloporphyrins have been widely used in selective oxygenation of hydrocarbons under mild conditions. The chapter focuses on reviewing the biomimetic homogeneous oxidation of organic compounds catalyzed by metalloporphyrins with green oxidants such...

As more methodologies for generating and manipulating biomimetic cellular systems are developed, opportunities arise for combining different methods to create more complex synthetic biological constructs. This necessitates an increasing need for tools to selectively trigger individual methodologies. Here we demonstrate ruthenium tris-bipyridine mediated photoredox triggering of the copper catal...

Citation: Bierbach D, Lukas J, Bergmann A, Elsner K, Höhne L, Weber C, Weimar N, Arias-Rodriguez L, Mönck HJ, Nguyen H, Romanczuk P, Landgraf T and Krause J (2018) Insights into the Social Behavior of Surface and Cave-Dwelling Fish (Poecilia mexicana) in Light and Darkness through the Use of a Biomimetic Robot. Front. Robot. AI 5:3. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00003 insights into the social Behavio...

Biological representations underly biological evolution. Moreover, they are also a product of evolution and consequently well adapted for their purpose. The argument presented in this paper is that the representations of biology are also suitable for representing artificial executable systems in genetic programming and, furthermore, that biomimetic representations could improve both the adaptab...