I absolutely loved taking this course! I especially enjoyed that I was able to learn how we can take what we know about biology and make more use of these things in a technological aspect. I had a very simple understanding of what bioinspired meant and this course broadened my definition. I do not consider myself a creative person and I appreciate that this course really made me think out of the box. I also appreciate that everything we learned in the following module was related to the last. I also liked that our discussion posts were always designed to make us think about the concepts we learned. I found myself constantly talking about the latest things that I learned in this course. I will never see the word bioinspiration the same and I am in love with the idea. I cannot wait to see how much we can improve our society based off of the nature around us.Â
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I enjoyed learning about the different tools that could help bridge the gap between biology and engineering. I think that these tools will really be useful in future designs. I also thought it was great that we were able to look back at our glossary submissions and improve them.Â
In week one’s glossary I informed the class about a car that Mercedes has created that looks and functions like a boxfish. When writing about the car I spoke about the fact that this bioinspired product is a societal win. Although I still think that this product is a societal win, looking back I realized that the car displays biomimicry more than bioinspiration. It mimics the car visually and structurally.
Glossary 2
This week’s post I talked about the potential of creating an Iron-plated armor based on the structure of a sea snail. I would add a picuture of the sea-snail layers and in addition go more into details about the layers in the shell of the snail. I would include: layers were developed as a source of protection from attacks. The snails' outer layer acts as a "line of defense" and sacrifices itself by cracking slightly under pressure. The soft organic middle layer keeps changes shape due to pressure and keeps the brittle inner layer from feeling the pain, in addition to protecting it from environmental factors.
This glossary post consisted of a sensor that was inspired by an fly’s eye. I added a picture of a fly’s eye and also a picture of a sensor mimics the concept of the speed sensor. I would also add that this sensor could be seen as biomimicry because it visually looks like an eye of a fly.
 http://images.sciencedaily.com/2012/10/121011141441-large.jpg
During week five I talked about Termites’ ability to digest and how it has inspired a source of fuel improvement. I would like to add the importance of this improvement. Using Protozoa would reduce the unwanted acetate and lactate byproducts and it would be more efficient in the production of fuel.
Glossary 6
In this week’s glossary I was able to learn about the Swarming Flying Robot. I would like to add that these robots are preprogramed by 3-D relative positioning sensors. I would also like to add professor Marianne’s fun fact that displayed these robots already being used in our society. She mentioned about these types of robots being used by Amazon to deliver products.Â
Module 8: Discussion Post- Engineering to Biology Thesaurus
The tool that I was assigned was created by Jacquelyn Nagel. The tool, The Engineering-to-Biology (E2B) Thesaurus, is a tool that was designed to “lower the hurdle to working across professional domains, allowing engineers without advanced biological knowledge to leverage nature’s ingenuity during engineering design”. The thesaurus includes engineering terms that are equivalent to biological terms.
This tool is still manual, but it has proven to be helpful. The steps involve the thesaurus being but in to a database. In addition make note of similarities between the domains and other take in to account other information. This tool would be excellent in trying to create a bioinspiration project. This tool has a lot of potential to help researchers, as well as engineers and so many others.
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This week we learned about different tools that are being developed to aid the bioinspiration process. I founds these tools to be really useful in possibly designing bioinspired projects. Â
My favorite part of this week's module was designing our own building. I think that it was a great opportunity to apply what we have learned from bioinspired architecture to a building that we would find suitable to ourself. It really helped me to better understand the concepts that I learned throughout the last few weeks.Â
The Silk Pavilion was created at the Mediated Matter Research Group at the MIT Media Lab. This lab “explores on the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales” (1). The primary structure consists of 26 polygonal panels that are silk threads. A computer numerically controlled machine places these silk threads down. After the primary structure was established a swarm of 6,500 silkworms spun flat-non woven silk patches on the CNC silk fibers creating a secondary structure.
Silk Pavilion was inspired by the silkworm’s ability to create a 3D cocoon out of 1km multi-property silk threads (2).
This project has been considered to be “Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the Silk Pavilion is the way it connects the dots between the world of information technology and biology”(3).
I am not quite sure if I would consider this a societal win. Although I think that this a great information that has been discovered, and in that aspect it is a win, but to what extent is this discovery beneficial? I am not really sure. I also would be a little iffy to call this project bioinspired due to the fact that the silkworms are the ones creating most of the structure. Â
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This week I was asked to design my own bioinspired house. I have always considered designing my own house, however I never put any thought into the details, let alone creating a house that was inspired by nature. In thinking about my dream house I know that I want it to be the most ecofriendly and convenient as possible my family and I.
Saving money is really important to me and is one of the major goals in creating my house. All the materials used will be recycled in some way. One of the ways I will help maintain a natural and cost-efficient environment is utilizing solar energy. Using the sun as a source for energy is seen in many organisms, the most commonly known, is plants. My house will have tall, reflective windows made of glass. My house will also have solar panels as a way to store energy and then later used. The thermal solar panels trap heat in the summer and it is then stored underground for later use in the winter. Similarly, cold temperatures could be stored in the soil during the winter and one would benefit from it during the summer.
Additionally, I will have a water purification system and recycling system. Not only will the water that is being used in the house be purified and reused, the rainwater will be collected from the roof, purified, and then recycled. Part of the roof would be made of special material that absorbs water similar to the way in which the Namib Beatle does through its exoskeleton. The collection of rainwater travels through pipes that eventually lead to the underground storage. This method of stabilizing temperature is mimicked from the stone plant. I think that using algae, similar to the way NIOO does to filter water, would be a great way to make the best use of our water source. This method is similar to a closed-loop water source, however there is additional water coming in.
The Netherlands Institute of Ecology, NIOO-KNAW, studies all aspects of nature. From the DNA of bacteria to the biodiversity of ecosystems. Its new complex in Wageningen is unique, and fully base...
As each week passes I feel like a learn more and more about nature and how we can use these mechanisms from organisms to help improve our society. I enjoyed learning about how organisms work together with little direction and how we have mimicked these behaviors in robots.Â
(PhysOrg.com) -- The GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania this week released a video that shows their new look in GRASP Lab robotic flying devices. They are now showing flying devices with more complex behavior than before, in a fleet of flying devices that move in packs, navigate spaces with ...
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For this glossary we were assigned robots that mimic organisms ability to work together in groups. Learning about the Swarming Flying robots was really interesting as I was not aware that robots had the ability to work collaboratively.
Swarming flying robots can also be called “nano quadrotor”. These remarkable robots can take part in social movements such as pattern formation and swarming. They can also do flips and avoid obstacles. These robots were designed in the GRASP (General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception) lab at UPenn.
 http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2012/dkdhd7sjkl.jpg
The inspiration of this robot came from organisms that have the ability to both fly and swarm, such as the Honeybee. Honeybees have discovered that working together is more beneficial than working individually and they have used it to working towards their advantage. Honeybees travel in a swarm to check out their surroundings and decide where is best to live. These robots are able to work together and move in unison through their sensors. Â
Researchers hope that these swarming flying robots will eventually be able to replace human search and surveillance teams. This would be especially helpful after natural disasters. I think this is a societal win. Not many robots have the ability to swarm and hopefully with further technology this will prove to be very helpful and save many lives. This is a true bioinspired robot because it replicates the ability to swarm and fly that we see Honeybees doing in nature.Â
One classmate asked:Â What types of sensory features would you see be added to this design for it to effectively operate as a search party?Â
My response: IÂ think that there would need to be thermal reception added to the robot to make it possible to operate as a search party. Perhaps the robot could be programed to sense the temperature of one's body heat and then send a signal to a rescue team.Â
Another classmate asked:Â Do the robots develop swarming and pattern formation as they evolve, via machine learning? Or is this behavior somehow programmed in via social rules similar to this week's flocking activity?
My response:Â They are programed in the robot as 3-D relative positioning sensor. These sensors act as a proximity sensor, which is designed to enable inter-robot spatial-coordination and goal-directed flight.Â
Professor Marianne also added a great article that showed this idea is not that far fetched anymore. These types of robots are now being used for deliveries. How cool is that!http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/physics-of-the-amazon-prime-air-drone/
