Michael G. Hinchey: Biological Inspiration.

Greater understanding of biology in modern times has enabled significant breakthroughs in improving healthcare, quality of life, and eliminating many diseases and congenital illnesses. Simultaneously there is a move towards emulating nature and copying many of the wonders uncovered in biology, resulting in "biologically inspired" systems. Significant results have been reported in a wide range of areas, with systems inspired by nature enabling exploration, communication, and advances that were never dreamed possible just a few years ago. We warn, that as in many other fields of endeavor, we should be inspired by nature and biology, not engage in mimicry. We describe some results of biological inspiration that augur promise in terms of improving the safety and security of systems, and in developing self-managing systems that we hope will ultimately lead to self-governing systems. We concentrate on the concept of swarm-based exploration missions that will enable NASA to explore space more efficiently and collect data never before available to scientists. We discuss several new self-x properties that will make such missions possible and that will also have application in other areas.