1. What we are trying to do.

Evolution has populated diverse ecological niches with biological systems that are exquisitely adapted to the demands of their environments. Biomorphic engineers seek to emulate the performance and efficiency of these systems by synthesizing artifacts that are isomorphic to the biological system at some level of description. The goal of this approach is to provide a powerful tool for scientific understanding of these complex systems, and to develop new technology that features some of their significant advantages.

2. The importance of synthesis.

Neuroethology has taught us that adaptive behavior is the result of the tight coupling between the nervous system, its biomechanics, and environment. Reductionist approaches allow us to characterize the role of isolated components of these systems. Synthetic approaches, such as computational neuroethology and biomorphic engineering, allow us to build on the successes of the reductionistic approach to close the loop between organism and environment. In this way we can explore the interaction of body, nervous system, and environment in adaptive behavior.

3. Why we do physical implementations.

As the role of the environment and body is key in the synthetic approach, an integrative simulation approach requires accurate models of both. This involves several difficulties, including assumptions about the environment and simplifications for computational tractability. In addition, there are a large number of constraints on physical systems that are imposed by their embodiment which are rarely considered in simulations. The biomorphic approach is sensitive to real-world constraints, such as real-time performance, low power consumption, compactness, autonomy, adaptation, and robustness, and avoids the need to model and simulate complex environments.

4. Life: The Ultimate technology.

Organisms offer us a technological paradigm in some ways far more advanced than our own. They operate on low power, they are robust to damage, and have compact designs while maintaining the real-time performance on which their survival depends. The biomorphic engineering approach aims to emulate this technology to both better understand the basic science underlying living systems, and create technology that is beneficial to humanity.