Sandy B. Primrose - Biomimetics: Nature-Inspired Design and Innovation

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7

Sandy B. Primrose

AMERSHAM RD
HIGH WYCOMBE
UK

This edition first published 2020
2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

The right of Sandy B. Primrose to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

Registered Office(s)
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

Editorial Office
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by printondemand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty
While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Primrose, S. B., author.
Title: Biomimetics : natureinspired design and innovation / Sandy B. Primrose.
Description: Hoboken, NJ : WileyBlackwell, 2020. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020008270 (print) | LCCN 2020008271 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119683322 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119683315 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119683346 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Biomimetics.
Classification: LCC QP517.B56 P755 2020 (print) | LCC QP517.B56 (ebook) | DDC 570.1/5195dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020008270
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020008271

Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Images: Chushkin/Getty Images, Pablo Zotalis/EyeEm/Getty Images

It's not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

At its simplest, biomimetics is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modelled on biological entities and processes. The concept of biomimetics stems from the realization that microbes, plants, and animals have been continuously evolving to cope with environmental and other challenges. The design challenges associated with vision, movement in diverse environments, temperature control, and detection of predators and/or prey have already been solved in a myriad ways over millions of years of evolution, providing rich opportunities for development of biomimetic and bioinspired materials. The diversity in form and function of living things is such that they have evolved solutions to most of the challenges that face humans today. We just have to look for those solutions! Janine Benyus pioneered this approach to problem solving in her 1997 book entitled Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature biomimicry being an alternative name for biomimetics.

The term biomimetics was devised over 40 years ago by American physicist Otto Schmitt. For him, biomimetics represented a biological approach to engineering in contrast to biophysics, which describes an engineering and physical approach to biology. A related term is bionics but, following the 1974 television series The Six Million Dollar Man, this has come to mean electronically operated artificial body parts. In 2015, George Whitesides of Harvard University pointed out that scientists often take inspiration from the capabilities of plants and animals and attempt to mimic some of their functionality using simplified and probably different mechanisms. He calls this bioinspiration and defines it as using phenomena in biology to stimulate research in nonbiological research and technology. The subject matter covered in this book is a mixture of bioinspiration and biomimetics. The novice reader might be interested to know that there is a journal that covers these two topics and, unsurprisingly, it is called Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Benyus has pointed out that there are two types of biomimetics: forward and reverse ().

Biomimetics approaches.

Source: Reproduced courtesy of the Biomimicry Institute.

How to use reverse biomimicry in product design.

Source: Reproduced courtesy of the Biomimicry Institute.

The earliest recorded attempts at biomimicry relate to manned flight. The ninth century poet Abbas ibn Firnas and the eleventh century monk Eilmer of Malmesbury attempted to fly by flapping wings that were attached to their arms. In 1485, Leonardo da Vinci began to study the flight of birds. He realized that humans are too heavy, and not strong enough, to fly using wings attached to their arms. He drew sketches of an ornithopter an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. The drawings show an aviator lying on a plank of wood and working two large membranous wings using hand levers, foot pedals, and a system of pulleys. There is no record of da Vinci constructing and testing such a device but, in 1841, a man called Manojlo did just that. He took off from the roof of the Dumrukhana (Import Tax Office) in Belgrade and fortuitously survived as he landed in a heap of snow. We will return to the concept of ornithopters in .