Of Bots and Bugs

Janine Benyus will be a guest lecturer in Evolved to Fit: Biomimicry in the Built World

for MIT's Goldstein Lecture Series, April 5th at 6:30pm at MIT Room 10-250.

Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry : Innovation Inspired by Nature, is President of the The Biomimicry Institute, a non-profit organization whose mission is to naturalize biomimicry in the culture by promoting the transfer of ideas, designs, and strategies from biology to sustainable human systems design. See Benyus's TED Talk here.

Interested in biomimicry? 

Come to the Science Carnival and check out MIT Lincoln Laboratory's booth featuring:  

Swarming Nano Hex Bugs 

Watch 12 bug-like robots exhibit swarming behaviors. Ask questions and interact with the robots to learn how simple robot design, probabilistic programming, and swarms can lead to seemingly intelligent behavior. Why do they move forward? What about their shape makes them always flip onto their feet and allows them to get around each other? Learn how ants, birds, fish, and more behave like this, working together to overcome obstacles.

Or check out a whole afternoon of biomimetics at the MIT Museum Saturday, April 21, 2012 1-5pm for:

Robots Gone Wild

Bugs, birds, and cheetahs, oh my! Take a walk on the wild side as you explore the exciting world of biology-inspired robotics. See robots in action and talk with researchers from MIT's Biomimetic Robotics Lab, the Robot Locomotion Group in the MIT Media Lab, Harvard's Microrobotics Laboratory, Northeastern's Biomimetic Underwater Robot Program and others. Find out what happens when engineers join forces with nature to design machines that run, fly, swim, crawl, and climb to new realms of robotic technology.