1. A biomimetic robotic device based on a subject animal, comprising: a body with an interior body cavity and an exterior body surface; counterpart physical components to each of identified physical components of the subject animal, each of the counterpart physical components being mechanically coupled to the body and independently actuatable; at least one sensor for sensing a condition or parameter external to the body surface, labeled line code for correlating each condition or parameter sensed by the at least one sensor with a respective reflex comprised of a physical maneuver or sequence of maneuvers of the robotic device, the physical maneuver or sequence of maneuvers of the robotic device corresponding to an exteroceptive reflex of the subject animal to a substantially similar condition or parameter as sensed by the subject animal, the labeled line code being output by ones of the at least one sensor; a library of motor command sequence structures characterizing commands for causing sequential changes in the physical orientation of identified counterpart physical components over temporal periods for performing physical maneuvers of the robotic device to provide forward, reverse, and lateral walking capabilities; and a neural circuit-based controller comprising a command neuron object and a memory for receiving the library of motor command sequence structures, the command neuron object being capable of selectively actuating ones of the counterpart physical components in response to selected ones of the motor command sequence structures, wherein input from the at least one sensor acts directly on the command neuron object to autonomously invoke the physical maneuver or sequence of maneuvers of the robotic device corresponding to the reflex of the subject animal to provide forward, reverse, and lateral walking capabilities.