From early days, the natural world has always inspired and informed humans’ ideas and inventions.
Over billions of years nature has evolved solutions that we have copied to create countless 'inventions' including turbine blades, velcro and infra-red goggles. This application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology is known as Bionics. Some fascinating examples of current research projects are being presented at this week’s Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Glasgow.
Pigeons inform auto-pilot navigation technology
New research on how birds can fly so quickly and accurately through dense forests may lead to new developments in robotics and auto-pilots.
Scientists from Harvard University trained pigeons to fly through an artificial forest with a tiny camera attached to their heads, literally giving a birds-eye view. Pigeons, with more than 300 degree panoramic vision, are well suited to this task because this wrap-round vision allows them to assess obstacles on either side. They can also stabilise their vision and switch rapidly between views.
The birds have other skills that would be important for auto-piloted machines, for example they tend to choose the straightest routes and can exit forests heading in exactly the same direction as when they entered in spite of all the twist and turns they made in the forest. When using a robot or an unmanned air-craft it would be invaluable to simply provide it with the coordinates of the destination without having to give it detailed information of all the obstacles it might meet on the way.
Swifts inspire flapping Micro Air Vehicles
Engineers have developed a micro air vehicle (MAV) that mimics the flight abilities of the swift, a passerine bird renowned for its aerial acrobatics.
Camera-mounted MAVs are frequently used in reconnaissance and rescue missions to scope out a dangerous situation before humans go in. Most of these micro-planes use a fixed-wing design because gliding is more energy efficient and allows for better picture quality. Flapping wings would allow for greater maneuverability, but at the cost of a shakier image.
Researchers based their new MAV on the swift's aerodynamics, combining both flapping and gliding abilities into a single vehicle. Though their prototype is still being tested, the researchers say their initial trials have been promising.
Tree Frogs' self-cleaning feet could solve a sticky problem
Trying to re-stick a piece of tape to a surface after it's become dusty is infuriating. So how do tree frogs get around this problem?
It turns out the arboreal amphibians, which secrete gluey mucus from pads on their feet, refresh their stickiness with every step they take.
Biologists found that the White's tree frog (Litoria caerulea) self-cleans as it climbs thanks to special channels in its feet that slime away dirt and debris. When the frog moves its limbs forward, the mucus and any accumulated gunk slip through the channels and stay behind while new sticky mucus is secreted in its place.
The researchers say these findings could one day inspire such technology as self-cleaning medical bandages and self-renewing adhesives.
Not only does nature continue to provide answers to our technological problems in 2011, it seems it also beat us to some of our previous ‘inventions’ – such as screws and nuts. Researchers have just discovered that the hips of small weevils do not consist of the usual hinges, but of joints based on a screw-and-nut system half a millimetre in size. It seems weevils have been using this construction for about 100 million years!
We still have so much to learn from the millions of animals and plants around us. It is to be hoped that the more we find out about them the more we will want to conserve and protect them.