# Bioinspired Design for Space Robots: Enhancing Exploration Capability and Intelligence

## TL;DR

This paper reviews how nature-inspired designs can improve space robots' abilities to explore and operate in challenging environments.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of bioinspired strategies across multiple domains of space robotics.

## Key findings

- Bioinspired adhesion and grasping improve on-orbit servicing capabilities.
- Nature-based mobility solutions enhance performance on granular and rocky planetary surfaces.
- Biological analogues lead to better autonomous decision-making in space robots.

## Abstract

Space exploration is a major global focus, advancing knowledge and exploiting new resources beyond Earth. Bioinspired design—drawing principles from nature—offers systematic pathways to increase the capability and intelligence of space robots. Prior reviews have emphasized on-orbit manipulators or lunar rovers, while a comprehensive treatment across application domains has been limited. This review synthesizes bioinspired capability and intelligence for space exploration under varied environmental constraints. We highlight four domains: adhesion and grasping for on-orbit servicing; terrain-adaptive mobility on granular and rocky surfaces; exploration intelligence that couples animal-like sensing with decision strategies; and design methodologies for translating biological functions into robotic implementations. Representative applications include gecko-like dry adhesives for debris capture, beetle-inspired climbers for truss operations, sand-moving quadrupeds and mole-inspired burrowers for granular regolith access, and insect flapping-wing robots for flight under Martian conditions. By linking biological analogues to quantitative performance metrics, this review highlights how bioinspired strategies can significantly improve on-orbit inspection, planetary mobility, subsurface access, and autonomous decision-making. Framed by capability and intelligence, bioinspired approaches reveal how biological analogues translate into tangible performance gains for on-orbit inspection, servicing, and long-range planetary exploration.