Education
VISION
Integrative Education and Research Training: CBID at Georgia Tech
**NEW**
Professional Short course in Biologically-Inspired Design: "Enhancing Innovation Through Biologically-Inspired Design"
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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.
News Update
Dr. Mohan Srinivasarao
Professor, School of Polymer, Textile and Fiber Engineering at Georgia Tech
Optical & Chemical Secrets of Jeweled Beetles
"Iridescent beetles, butterflies, certain sea organisms and many birds derive their unique colors from the interaction of light with physical structures on their external surfaces. Understanding how these structures give rise to the stunning colors we see in nature could benefit the quest for miniature optical devices and photonics.” (image: Zina Deretsky, NSF)
Dr. David Hu
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech
Limbless Locomotion
Terrestrial snakes propel themselves by using a variety of techniques, including slithering by lateral undulation of the body, rectilinear progression by unilateral contraction/extension of their belly, concertina-like motion by folding the body as the pleats of an accordion, and sidewinding motion by throwing the body into a series of helices.
Dr. Daniel Goldman
Assistant Professor,
School of Physics at Georgia Tech
Undulatory Swimming in Sand: Subsurface Locomotion of the Sandfish Lizard
The desert-dwelling sandfish (Scincus scincus) moves within dry sand, a material that displays solid and fluidlike behavior. High-speed x-ray imaging shows that below the surface, the lizard no longer uses limbs for propulsion but generates thrust to overcome drag by propagating an undulatory traveling wave down the body. Although viscous hydrodynamics can predict swimming speed in fluids such as water, an equivalent theory for granular drag is not available. To predict sandfish swimming speed, we developed an empirical model by measuring granular drag force on a small cylinder oriented at different angles relative to the displacement direction and summing these forces over the animal movement profile. The agreement between model and experiment implies that the noninertial swimming occurs in a frictional fluid. (Kinematics of the undulatory sandfish motion. (A) Traveling wave moving down the body of the sandfish opposite to the direction of the sandfish forward motion (sampled every 0.04 s). For each time instant, the instantaneous lateral displacement of a tracked section of the sandfish is represented in color. The black curves represent the tracked midline (for example, Figure 1E, snout tip to tail tip) of the sandfish. Image: Ryan D. Maladen, Yang Ding, Chen Li,Daniel I. Goldman)
Research
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.
Movers and Shakers
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
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.
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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
