But now researchers at Festo, a German industrial control and automation company, are taking their cue from the natural world to gain valuable insights that could one day transform industry.

Its three latest projects -- BionicANTs, eMotionButterflies and its tongue-like FlexShapeGripper -- all mimic nature to find solutions to the problems thrown up by the coordination and logistics necessary to carry out mechanical robotic tasks.

"With all of our products we want to show how innovative technical ideas can facilitate the future of work and how principles from nature can change and improve industries," a Festo spokesman told CNN.

The aim of its butterfly project, for instance, shows how communication in flight could one day work for complex networks in the workspace.

"We wanted to show how several objects could be coordinated without colliding in a three- dimensional space thanks to a multifaceted network," he said.

"Although we don't expect our butterflies to be flying through factories any time soon, their integrated network systems may well be used as solutions for industrial logistics applications or could lead to a guidance and monitoring system in future factories."

Swarm tech takeover

Its prototype artificial BionicANTs, meanwhile, takes its cue from the deeply hierarchical and highly organized world of the ant colony."

Our ants are able to communicate with a network on their own. Working together they can achieve things they could not do by themselves," he said.

"This cooperative behavior provides interesting approaches for the factory of tomorrow."With greater flexibility and individuality demanded of automation in the future, the ants, he said, show how a networked group can communicate with each other while at the same time take orders at a higher control level.

"Using these types of networks will allow industries to better cater to the individual requests of customers."