.A spider’s web could potentially serve as a signal-processing device. Image credit: University of BristolThe computational capabilities of spiders are the focus of an interdisciplinary research project led by the Universities of Bristol and Oxford in the UK. The researchers theorize that spiders use their webs as signal processing devices, sending vibrations throughout these complex structures and measuring the resulting vibration patterns. A web not only ensnares prey but also contributes to pattern recognition tasks to locate and categorize everything happening within it.

The analysis of how morphologies can carry out computation can improve design approaches used to develop intelligent sensor technologies, especially for vibration and flow sensors.

Robotics can also benefit from a greater understanding of on-demand deployable morphology-based computational devices. Potential uses for the technology include maintenance robots that swarm through tubes and build flow sensors at key points to identify irregularities, or climbing robots that construct vibration sensors at strategic places on buildings to detect earthquakes or structural failure.

The research project will combine biological experimentation, simulation, and mathematical modelling with the goal of engineering a new sensor technology that can be used for vibration and flow measurements. Robotic prototypes capable of deploying this sensor on demand will