Though technology and nature could be perceived as two opposing forces, you might be surprised to find out how much scientists learn from the animal kingdom. Here are some really neat technologies inspired by what animals do and how they do it…
Swarm Intelligence
Ever wonder how a flock of a thousand birds or a billion buzzing bees avoid colliding into each other? Swarm intelligence looks at the way in which birds and various social insects flock together, and consequently, this is helping researchers and scientists develop new ways of enhancing surveillance photos as well as assisting in military procedures. By understanding and applying the rules that animals (or particles) use to identify and align themselves with their neighbors, replicating these instincts with technology could be highly beneficial in high intensity scenarios such as recognizing the best evacuation route out of a city during an emergency. Swarm intelligence can also be applied to images. By treating every pixel of a digital photo like a member of a swirling mass of particles, with a specific speed and direction, every pixel essentially uses a set of rules to look at where it is and where it might go next, a very useful advancement (like exchange hosted services for compnay management) for surveillance photos [MSNBC].
Leaping Lizards! (The Jesus lizard that walks on water)
Nature is full of surprises, but one particularly stood out for Carnegie Mellon robotics professor, Metin Sitti, an undergraduate robotics class teacher, whose focus is on the study of mechanics present in the natural world. In 2003, professor Sitti and his students decided to build their own Jesus lizard robot. He used the basilisk lizard (commonly referred to as the Jesus Christ lizard), as an example of strange biomechanics. The 75 cm reptile, which can weigh anywhere from 200-600 grams, has the ability to cycle its legs at a specific angle which enables it to speed across the water for short distances. Smaller basilisks can run about 10-20 m without sinking. After months of work, Sitti and his students were able to create the first robot that could walk on water, though he admits that getting the legs to touch the water perfectly each time was no easy feat. Understanding the lizard’s leg mechanics could bring humans closer to one day walking on water, which would be very practical during flood rescue missions [Mental Floss].
Diving Beetle- advancing underwater breathing technologies
Though most insects and spiders will usually drown when submerged into water, aquatic insects such as the great diving beetle, which can grow up to 60 mm in length, possess rigid hairs on their abdomen that repels water and creates a silvery film of air to prevent it from collapsing. These air layers can essentially behave as gills, allowing oxygen in the water to flow in, and carbon dioxide in the air, to diffuse out. By studying how the diving beetle traps air and keeps it from drowning, researchers suggest artificial gills that mimic such a trick could help people breathe underwater [Live Science].
Shark Skin to make you swim faster
Because shark skin doesn’t collect slime, algae, or barnacles the U.S. Navy developed an environmentally-friendly coating to increase ship speeds while saving fuel. This also inspired the “Fastskin” suit, designed by Speedo to enable swimmers to swim at record speeds, is a technology inspired by shark skin. By looking at the skin of the shark and how it reacts in the water, it led to the discovery that shark skin varies across its body. The fabric used for the Speedo Fastskin compresses the body, which in turn stops the skin from vibrating, preventing muscle oscillation. The fabric contains tiny V-shaped ridges resembling dermal denticles, bumpy scales, like a rug of tiny teeth, which algae and barnacles can’t latch on to. This decreases drag and turbulence around a shark’s body. The new swimsuits were worn during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, however by 2009, the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) changed the rules for competition-grade swimsuits, marking the end of shark-inspired swimsuits [Discovery].
Shark Skin to repel germs
Engineer Tony Brennan realized that a shark’s entire body is covered in dermal denticles which won’t trap bacteria, and it inspired a company called Sharklet to begin exploring how to use the shark skin to make a coating that repels germs. Today, the firm produces a sharkskin-inspired plastic wrap that’s currently being tested on hospital surfaces (light switches, monitors, handles) and as far as they can tell the technology has been quite successful in fending off germs.
Mantis Shrimps inspiring new DVD and CD technology
The mantis shrimps found on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia are considered to have the most complex vision systems known to science. Whereas humans can only see in three colours, mantis shrimps can see in twelve and can distinguish between different forms of polarized light, light that vibrates in a single plane as it travels (just imagine attaching a string to a wall and shaking it up and down). Special light-sensitive cells in mantis shrimp eyes make it possible for mantis shrimps to convert linearly polarized light to circularly polarized light and vice versa. Similar devices are also found in camera filters, CD players and DVD players but these man-made versions are far inferior to the mantis shrimp’s “biological tech”. Award-winning science writer, Ed Young, describes this rather expansive and complicated phenomenon most comprehensibly, if you would like to read more about it. Dr Nicholas Roberts, lead author of the paper published on Nature Photonics said: “It could help us make better optical devices in the future using liquid crystals that have been chemically engineered to mimic the properties of the cells in the mantis shrimp’s eye”.
Climbing up the Walls- Gecko-inspired robots
Though no one can deny that the idea of walking on walls is pretty darn cool, robot designer and assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, Sangbae Kim, was so intrigued by the concept that he and his colleagues set out to build a climbing robot. Kim had already worked on the robot as a graduate student at Stanford. The scientists knew the robot’s feet should be sticky, however, creating a substance that would detach as easily as it would stick was more difficult then they imagined. But when Lewis and Clark College biologist, Kellar Autunm discovered that geckos use a phenomenon called directional adhesion. to stick to walls, Kim learned that “stickiness does not necessarily come from chemical composition; it can come from mechanical properties and geometry.”
Stickybot (the gecko inspired robot) has specially designed footpads that allow it to climb smooth surfaces. The pads of a gecko’s feet are covered with a forest of tiny hairs called setae, some of which are one-twentieth the width of a human hair. The setae, in turn, branch into hundreds of tiny smaller hairs called spatulae, which are about one-thousandth the width of a human hair. These hairs cling to surfaces using tiny molecular interactions known as van der Waals forces. Collectively, the forces are strong enough to support the gecko’s weight as it scrambles up a vertical surface [MIT].
Cheetah-bot
Stickybot wasn’t the only of professor Sangbae Kim’s animal-inspired robotic designs. The cheetahbot is being developed in order to better understand animal mechanisms and replicate them in robots to achieve unprecedented levels of functionality and efficiency. The cheetahbot is built from a lightweight carbon-fiber-foam composite which is able to run at 70 mph without any fuss.
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