Other creatures, though—insects among them—have compound eyes. These are composed of units called ommatidia. Each ommatidium consists of a tiny lens, called a facet, and a few receptor cells.

An insect-eye camera could do the same, while possibly making the robot more sensitive to movements. “It’s great work, and a nice example of biomimetics,” says Nicholas Roberts from the ...

The digital camera has the compound structure of an insect’s eye. It gets its all-around vision from dozens of individual light-sensitive cells spread over a rubbery surface.