Bionic animals mimic real-world counterparts

New animal-inspired robots, which have been programmed to replicate the actual intelligence of an animal, have been unveiled by researchers at German company Festo, according to NBC News.

Among the bionic animals, the eMotion butterflies have attracted great attention with their tiny bodies comprising a battery and all the electronics necessary to keep them on track. They can even fly in flocks, guided by indoor GPS and careful monitoring of their own motion.

The BionicANT, which is around the size of a human hand, imitates their real-world counterparts in form and function. They can intelligently carry heavy objects, while avoiding each other and returning to the edge of the enclosure when their batteries run low, placing their "antennae" against the charged rail to re-energize, NBC News reported.

In a press release on its website, Festo says: "Like their natural role models, the BionicANTs work together under clear rules. They communicate with each other and coordinate their actions and movements among each other. The artificial ants thus demonstrate how autonomous individual components can solve a complex task together working as an overall networked system."

Festo also developed another robotic bug named "the FlexShapeGripper" based on similar principles to a lizard's sticky tongue. The FlexShapeGripper is able to catch objects neatly.

Festo creates all kinds of machinery and robots, but makes a specialty of these "biomimetic" devices. The eMotion butterflies, BionicANTs and FlexShapeGripper will be on display in April at the heavy industry trade show in Hannover Messe.