Open AccessTaking inspiration from climbing plants: methodologies and benchmarks—a review
Author(s) -
Isabella Fiorello,
Emanuela Del Dottore,
Francesca Tramacere,
Barbara Mazzolai
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
bioinspiration and biomimetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1748-3190
pISSN - 1748-3182
DOI - 10.1088/1748-3190/ab7416
Subject(s) - climbing , adaptation (eye) , robotics , robot , artificial intelligence , computer science , engineering , systems engineering , biology , structural engineering , neuroscience
One of the major challenges in robotics and engineering is to develop efficient technological solutions that are able to cope with complex environments and unpredictable constraints. Taking inspiration from natural organisms is a well-known approach to tackling these issues. Climbing plants are an important, yet innovative, source of inspiration due to their ability to adapt to diverse habitats, and can be used as a model for developing robots and smart devices for exploration and monitoring, as well as for search and rescue operations. This review reports the main methodologies and approaches used by scientists to investigate and extract the features of climbing plants that are relevant to the artificial world in terms of adaptation, movement, and behaviour, and it summarizes the current available climbing plant-inspired engineering solutions.