Abstract
Humans have frequently looked to natural phenomena to inspire the design of art, structures, and mechanisms. However, there are as many different ways to learn from nature as there are words for this concept: bioinspiration, biomimicry, and biodesign to name a few. In this talk, I propose a taxonomy for categorizing distinct biodesign approaches and use examples from my own research to illustrate each strategy. In particular, I describe how bio-inspired approaches can be used to symbiotically further biological inquiry while advancing robotics.
Biography
Talia Y. Moore is an Assistant Professor of Robotics and of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, where she is also affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Museum of Zoology. She received her PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University in 2016 and her BA in Integrative Biology from UC Berkeley in 2008. She aims to symbiotically bridge robotics and biology, so that her work in each discipline informs and advances the other. She was awarded the Carl Gans Young Investigator Award by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology for distinguished contributions to the field of comparative biomechanics and the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty award from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
