Abstract
The understanding of functional principles of insect materials, structures, sensors, actuators, locomotion, control systems, and behavior is of major scientific interest. On the other hand, this basic knowledge is also highly relevant for technical applications. One of the greatest challenges for today’s engineering science is miniaturization. Insects have solved many problems correlated with extremely small size, during their evolution. Zoologists, entomologists, morphologists, and neurobiologists have collected a huge amount of information about the structure and function of such living micro-mechanical systems. This information can be utilized to mimic them for industrial applications. Insect solutions may be applied in the following main technology areas: (1) materials science and technology, (2) surface science, (3) science of adhesives, (4) optics, (5) photonics, (6) sensorics, and (7) robotics. A few selected examples are discussed in this chapter, but with over one million described species as a source for inspiration, one can expect many more ideas from entomological science for biomimetics.
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