When physics rules robotics: scaling issues in the design of robots and robotic applications

This article discusses some fundamental issues that arise as robots become much larger or much smaller than everyday human scale. The articleʹs title is respectfully derived from C.J. Pennycuickʹs "Newton Rules Biology: A physical approach to biological problems" (1992), from which robot and robotic system designers can learn much from the performance, successes, and failings of biological evolution. Much of the discussion will focus on scaling issues that were first recognized in biological versus technological domains. These issues are discussed mostly from the biological perspective, with the assumption that the reader will have no difficulty extending the underlying principles to technological domains in general, and to the robotics domain specifically. Discussion is also focused on a hypothetical family of geometrically similar vacuum cleaners.