Biomimetics and its tools

Abstract

Biomimetics, as the transfer of strategies from biology to technology, is an emerging research area and has led to significant concepts over the past decades. The development of such concepts is described by the process of biomimetics, encompassing several steps. In Practice, beneficiaries of the process face challenges. Therefore, to overcome challenges and to facilitate the steps, tools have been developed in various areas, such as engineering, computing and design. However, these tools are not widely used yet. This paper presents an overview and a classification study of more than 40 tools with qualitative criteria. The criteria included, for example, the year of development, the accessibility of tools, the facilitated steps of the process or their contribution to sustainability. The classification shows that certain steps of the process and their challenges are well addressed by the tools, while other steps are not. The presented results contribute to the proposal of an improvement of the state of the art, and they build the foundation for future theoretical and practical analyses. These findings could contribute to increasing the implementation of biomimetics in various disciplines in the long term.

Paradigms for biologically inspired design

“…The connection of biomimicry to sustainability is inherent, as the evolutionary process of nature creates resource efficient results which should support the solution of ecological challenges caused by mankind 47,48 . Cohen and Reich 49 generated an overview of terminology of different biomimetic design directions.…”

E2BMO: Facilitating User Interaction with a BioMimetic Ontology via Semantic Translation and Interface Design

“…This increases the accessibility of biological information to practitioners with varying biological knowledge, but also allows for more efficient communication with a biologist, which we believe is a necessary endeavor to understand the complexity of biological systems. A recent review [8] identified The functional approach has long been a key central concept to the practice of biomimicry and has been identified as a solution to overcome the difficulties of its interdisciplinary nature. A recent review of biomimetic tools and processes identified several models of the problem-driven approach and correlated them with the general problem-solving process of Massay & Wallace 1956 [13], commonly used in engineering and design [12].…”

“…to engage in a collaborative process that transcends disciplinary boundaries, while also requiring knowledge transfer and communication across such disciplines. To add to this challenge, the tools created to facilitate biomimicry practice tend to be defined by one field of knowledge, primarily that of the tool developer [8]. For example, engineers tend to take a functional approach to problem decomposition while biologists more commonly tend to decompose the complex interactions within biological systems.…”

Biomimicry: Do Frames of Inquiry Support Search and Identification of Biological Models?

“…VELCRO ® , an adhesive system inspired by how burrs cling to animal fur, is an example of biomimicry [2]. Despite biomimicry's potential to deliver disruptive product innovations [3,4], and excellent reviews of existing methods and associated tools [5,6], little has been published on best practices apart from a few studies carried out with students in classroom settings [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Notably absent in the literature are industry field studies designed to support and inform development of procedural scaffolding for the industry practice of biomimicry.…”