BEAM Robotics:
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BEAM basically stands for:

Biology Electronics Aesthetics Mechanics

This theory is put forward and patented by the robot guru, Mark Tilden. You can have a look at the patent here.

"Survival-oriented "intelligent" robots, constructed of simple hardware at minimal cost, move under solar power and can negotiate hostile environments using only simple mechanics and an electronic core. These biomorphs (biological morphology) have artificial nervous systems, which produce appropriate adaptive walking gaits that allow these robotic systems to interact with the external world. The biomorphs' legs are equipped with explicit and implicit local sensors that allow them to make highly abstract images of their immediate environments. These autonomous mobile mechanisms have many potential applications from environmental cleanup to space exploration."---- Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545

The reason why BEAM has attracted so many of its followers is because of its simplicity. One can build a robot without much knowledge of electronics for as little as Rs50. Once you build a BEAM robot, you don't have to look after it. It gets its energy from the sun and gets around the obstacles using its sensors.Its quite interesting to watch how a robot, build using very few components, exhibits complex behaviors. The level of complexity increases as you get more and more familiar with BEAM and build more and more complex creatures.

Generally we assume that a robot should have certain principles to live by:
1) It should be independent.
2) Its should find its own source of survival (food).
3) It should protect itself in any circumstances.
4) It should have a goal in life.

This is similar to how Mother Nature has made all of us. What happens when you have a dozen of them? Well, you have a robotic Jurassic park! where each one fights for its own survival and the fittest of them survives.

You can have a look at my BEAM robots in the robots section.

For more information on BEAM robotics, follow the links section.