BEAM Robotics

BEAM is alternatively said to stand for: Building Evolution Anarchy Modularity Biotechnology Ethnology Analogy Morphology.
Most BEAM robots are unusually simple in design compared to traditional mobile robots, and trade off flexibility in purpose for robustness of performance. BEAM style robots are coming from behavior-based robotics approach.
The school of behavior-based robots owes much to work undertaken in the 1980s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Professor Rodney Brooks, who with students and colleagues built a series of wheeled and legged robots utilising the subsumption architecture.

Behavior-Based Robotics by Ronald C. Arkin from MIT press.