Education



rapture reef fish

VISION
Integrative Education and Research Training: CBID at Georgia Tech



**NEW**
Professional Short course in Biologically-Inspired Design: "Enhancing Innovation Through Biologically-Inspired Design"



  • Georgia Tech's Center for Biologically Inspired Design brings together a group of interdisciplinary biologists, engineers and physical scientists who seek to facilitate research and education for innovative products and techniques based on biologically-inspired design solutions. The participants of CBID believe that science and technology are increasingly hitting the limits of approaches based on traditional disciplines, and Biology may serve as an untapped resource for design methodology, with concept-testing having occurred over millions of years of evolution. Experiencing the benefits of Nature as a source of innovative and inspiring principles encourages us to preserve and protect the natural world rather than simply to harvest its products.

Research



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Biosensors



SENSORS AND SENSING. Organisms sense physical stimuli (e.g, fluid motion, sound pressure, etc) with structures or processing schemes that often are quite different from that employed in human-built systems, particularly because humans are so visually oriented. However, an organism's ability to gather information efficiently is often key to their survival, and organisms must perform these tasks under conditions of limited processing power or materials. Studying animal sensation therefore can yield novel sensors, or develop sensors that efficiently gather particular information for a certain task in a specific environment. The limits on neural processing machinery and sensory structures make animal strategies particularly useful for autonomous systems. Animals must also frequently communicate without exposing themselves to predators or other dangers, and provide insights in how to design private communication channels.


Biological Materials



BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS often differ from human materials in both their properties and their constituents. Biomaterials are assembled from the smallest scales out of common materials, and are organized hierarchically with non-uniform properties (anisotropic). In contrast, we manufacture relatively homogenous materials by manipulations at large scales, and with reliance on relatively scarce (often toxic) substances such as metals. Examining biomaterials provides insights into how to design materials that are differentially sensitive to forces along certain directions, which can reduce weight and material usage in structures. They also provide clues to materials that can channel light, sound or heat differentially along certain directions, yielding natural fiber optics, better insulating materials or acoustically absorptive materials. Understanding the principles that result in ground up manufacturing can help to develop these new materials based on common, non-toxic building blocks.


Locomotory



BIOMECHANICS AND LOCOMOTION. Animal locomotion results from nonlinear biological systems that must interact effectively with complex physical environments. Animals produce movement with muscular structures that differ substantially from human technology (e.g. animals have no wheels), and must move with minimal energy usage, often over large distances and in variable environments. Organisms also employ passive regulation (i.e. movements are coordinated and regulated as a result of inherent properties of materials or system connections), which further reduces the need for complex central coordination. As a result of these properties, studying animal locomotion can help to develop more energy efficient vehicles by adopting useful shapes, movement kinematics or structures, or by reducing the need for complex mechanical control systems that add weight and consume energy. Because biological structures are tough rather than strong, biological systems are excellent guides for using flexible and deformable structures instead of rigid and non-compliant ones, and provide blueprints for systems that can bend, twist or resist forces adaptively in response to changing conditions. These strategies may minimize materials and energy while preserving or improving function.

Biosystems



BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS span multiple scales and have many elements connected in complex ways. Examples include networks of self-regulating circulatory vessels, social insect colonies, or ecological communities. These systems often exhibit surprising complexity and perform well under a large range of conditions, even though individual interactions may be based on simple rules (e.g. foraging in bee colonies). In addition, the organization of connections appears to allow some biological systems (e.g. ecosystems) to resist disruptions caused when individual elements (e.g. a species) are removed or added to the system. Since most biological systems function to exchange information, materials (or both), studying the properties of these systems may provide strategies for more efficient and sustainable transportation or energy distribution systems, produce principles that lead to more secure and robust information networks, or provide for adaptive behavior of groups (movement rules, task allocation) with a minimal number of simple rules and little organizational hierarchy. Such principles may contribute to better human systems ranging from transportation networks, city structures, or organizational/social networks.



Cognitive Models



COGNITIVE MODELS AND COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS. Biologically-inspired design depends on building deep and accurate analogies between human and biological systems, since design principles useful to a human problem must be derived from analyzing a similar problem faced in the biological world. As mentioned previously, we do not yet fully understand how even experts in engineering or biology go about mining evolutionary adaptation as a source for design inspiration. Cognitive studies are required to understand the cognitive and social processes underlying biologically inspired design. The results of these cognitive studies are computational models and tools that support the transfer of biological knowledge to engineering domains, and vice-versa, and educational strategies that teach engineers and biologists how to operate in this interdisciplinary framework.


News Update



dan sandbot

Dr. Daniel Goldman

Assistant Professor,
School of Physics at Georgia Tech



Sensitive dependence of the motion of a legged robot on granular media



Abstract: Recent bioinspired legged robots display speed relative to body size on hard ground comparable with high-performing organisms like cockroaches but suffer significant performance loss on flowing materials like sand. We propose a kinematic model of the rotary walking mode based on generic features of penetration and slip of a curved limb in granular media. The model captures the dependence of robot speed on limb frequency and the transition between walking and swimming modes but highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the physics of granular media (click image for NPR link and video).

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Movers and Shakers



3movers

Janine Benyus: "The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone"
Consider the TEDTalks in Biomimicry with: Scientist, Robert Full; Biologist, Sheila Patek; Journalist, Janine Benyus; and Oceanographer, David Gallo. TedTalk videos

National Geographic: Biomimetics: Design by Nature What has fins like a whale, skin like a lizard, and eyes like a moth? The future of engineering. read article

Ray Anderson: "...creating the technologies of the future-kinder, gentler technologies that emulate nature's systems. I believe that's where we will find the right model. Ultimately, I believe we must learn to depend solely on available income the way a forest does, not on our precious stores of natural capital. Linear practices must be replaced by cyclical ones. That's nature's way. In nature, there is no waste; one organism's waste is another's food." watch video

Up to the Moment



biowave eden

News, Events, and the 2008-2009 CBID Seminar Series



Biomimicry: Are Humans Smarter Than Sea Sponges?
BioPower Systems' wave power device (Biowave) mimics the swaying motion of the sea plants found in the ocean floor. The system consists of three floating blades which are constantly oscillated by the motion of the sea, generating electricity as they do so. The flexibility of the blades enables them to deal with heavy seas without breaking, unlike more rigid designs.
learn more


The Eden Project
Overall we believe the world we live in is facing radical change - and our aim is to help find positive futures in the face of that change. To get in shape for the challenges of the future we need a culture that knows how to sustain the things that sustain us and at the same time nutures creativity, imagination and adaptability.
how it works


2006-2007 Seminar Series



2006-2008 Seminar Series



2006 Symposium at Georgia Tech



biomimicry defined
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inspire

Natural Capitalism


by Paul Hawken
& Amory and Hunter Lovins

Natural Capitalism

"Hawken (The Ecology of Commerce) and Amory and Hunter Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank, have put together an ambitious, visionary monster of a book advocating natural capitalism." From Publishers Weekly

human plus nature

...much of the human search for a coherent and fullfilling existence is intimately connected tp our relationship with nature.


Stephan R. Kellert
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CBID is an interdisciplinary center for research and development of design solutions that occur in biological processes. Founded in 2005, It is one of more than 100 interdisciplinary research units funded at Georgia Institute of Technology