Creating the Internet of Biological and Bioinspired Things

Abstract

Biological systems can perform incredible feats in comparison to their electronic counterparts. Plants like dandelions can disperse their seeds over a kilometer in the wind, and small insects like bumblebees can see, smell, communicate, and fly around the world, despite their tiny size. Enabling some of these capabilities for the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems would be transformative for applications ranging from large-scale sensor deployments to micro-drones, biological tracking, and robotic implants. In this dissertation, we will explain how by taking an interdisciplinary approach spanning battery-free systems, wireless networking, sensing, and biology, we can create programmable systems for the Internet of biological and bio-inspired things. We present the first battery-free wireless sensors, inspired by dandelion seeds, that can be dispersed by the wind to automate deployment of large-scale sensor networks. We will then describe how integrating programmable wireless sensors with live animals like bumblebees can enable mobility for IoT devices, and how this technique has been used for real-world applications like tracking invasive "murder" hornets. Finally, we will present an energy-efficient insect-scale steerable vision system inspired by animal head motion that can ride on the back of a live beetle and enable tiny terrestrial robots to see. Building these systems requires addressing the combined technical challenges of miniaturizing computing, sensing, communication, and power for these devices. The traditional approach to miniaturization has been to develop custom integrated circuits for each of these components. In contrast, this thesis explains how we can use programmable general purpose computing devices to rapidly develop a variety of novel and innovative miniaturized wireless systems. This approach has the potential to exponentially increase innovation in a range of domains including smart agriculture, biological tracking, microrobots, and implanted devices by empowering anyone with a computer engineering degree to work on miniaturized systems without the need to develop custom silicon.