5/12/2019 Bionics - Wikipedia

Bionics

Robot behaviour (bottom) modeled after that of a cockroach (top) and a gecko (middle).

Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and sy stems found in
nature to the study and design of engineering sy stems and modern technology . [1 ]

The word bionic was coined by Jack E. Steele in August 1958, being formed as a portmanteau from biology and
electronics. [2 ] It was popularized by the 197 0s U.S. telev ision series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic
Woman, both based upon the nov el Cyborg by Martin Caidin, which was itself influenced by Steele's work. All
feature humans giv en superhuman powers by electromechanical implants.

The transfer of technology between lifeforms and manufactured objects is, according to proponents of bionic
technology , desirable because ev olutionary pressure ty pically forces liv ing organisms, including fauna and flora,
to become highly optimized and efficient. A classical example is the dev elopment of dirt- and water-repellent
paint (coating) from the observ ation that practically nothing sticks to the surface of the lotus flower plant (the
lotus effect)..

The term "biomimetic" is preferred when the reference is made to chemical reactions. In that domain, biomimetic
chemistry refers to reactions that, in nature, inv olv e biological macromolecules (e.g. enzy mes or nucleic acids)
whose chemistry can be replicated in vitro using much smaller molecules.

Examples of bionics in engineering include the hulls of boats imitating the thick skin of dolphins; sonar, radar,
and medical ultrasound imaging imitating animal echolocation.

In the field of computer science, the study of bionics has produced artificial neurons, artificial neural
networks, [3 ] and swarm intelligence. Ev olutionary computation was also motiv ated by bionics ideas but it took
the idea further by simulating ev olution in silico and producing well-optimized solutions that had nev er
appeared in nature.

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It is estimated by Julian Vincent, professor of biomimetics at the Univ ersity of Bath's Department of Mechanical
Engineering, that "at present there is only a 12% ov erlap between biology and technology in terms of the
mechanisms used". [4 ]

Contents
History
Methods
Examples
Specific uses of the term
In medicine
Politics
Other uses
See also
References
Sources
External links
Institutes

History
The name biomimetics was coined by Otto Schmitt in the 1950s. The term bionics was coined by Jack E. Steele in
August 1958 while working at the Aeronautics Division House at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Day ton,
Ohio. [5 ] Howev er, terms like biomimicry or biomimetics are more preferred in the technology world in efforts to
av oid confusion between the medical term bionics. Coincidentally , Martin Caidin used the word for his 197 2
nov el Cyborg, which inspired the series The Six Million Dollar Man. Caidin was a long-time av iation industry
writer before turning to fiction full-time.

Methods
The study of bionics often emphasizes implementing a function found in
nature rather than imitating biological structures. For example, in
computer science, cy bernetics tries to model the feedback and control
mechanisms that are inherent in intelligent behav ior, while artificial
intelligence tries to model the intelligent function regardless of the
particular way it can be achiev ed.

The conscious copy ing of examples and mechanisms from natural

organisms and ecologies is a form of applied case-based reasoning,
treating nature itself as a database of solutions that already work.
Velcro was inspired by the tiny hooks
Proponents argue that the selectiv e pressure placed on all natural life
found on the surface of burs.
forms minimizes and remov es failures.

Although almost all engineering could be said to be a form of

biomimicry , the modern origins of this field are usually attributed to Buckminster Fuller and its later codification
as a house or field of study to Janine Beny us.

There are generally three biological lev els in the fauna or flora, after which technology can be modeled:

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Mimicking natural methods of manufacture

Imitating mechanisms found in nature (velcro)
Studying organizational principles from the social behaviour of organisms, such as the flocking behaviour of
birds, optimization of ant foraging and bee foraging, and the swarm intelligence (SI)-based behaviour of a school of
fish.

Examples
In robotics, bionics and biomimetics are used to apply the way animals move to the design of robots.
BionicKangaroo was based on the movements and physiology of kangaroos.
Velcro is the most famous example of biomimetics. In 1948, the Swiss engineer George de Mestral was cleaning his
dog of burrs picked up on a walk when he realized how the hooks of the burrs clung to the fur.
The horn-shaped, saw-tooth design for lumberjack blades used at the turn of the 19th century to cut down trees
when it was still done by hand was modeled after observations of a wood-burrowing beetle. It revolutionized the
industry because the blades worked so much faster at felling trees.
Cat's eye reflectors were invented by Percy Shaw in 1935 after studying the mechanism of cat eyes. He had found
that cats had a system of reflecting cells, known as tapetum lucidum, which was capable of reflecting the tiniest bit
of light.
Leonardo da Vinci's flying machines and ships are early examples of drawing from nature in engineering.
Resilin is a replacement for rubber that has been created by studying the material also found in arthropods.
Julian Vincent drew from the study of pinecones when he developed in 2004 "smart" clothing that adapts to changing
temperatures. "I wanted a nonliving system which would respond to changes in moisture by changing shape", he
said. "There are several such systems in plants, but most are very small — the pinecone is the largest and therefore
the easiest to work on". Pinecones respond to higher humidity by opening their scales (to disperse their seeds). The
"smart" fabric does the same thing, opening up when the wearer is warm and sweating, and shutting tight when
cold.
"Morphing aircraft wings" that change shape according to the speed and duration of flight were designed in 2004 by
biomimetic scientists from Penn State University. The morphing wings were inspired by different bird species that
have differently shaped wings according to the speed at which they fly. In order to change the shape and underlying
structure of the aircraft wings, the researchers needed to make the overlying skin also be able to change, which their
design does by covering the wings with fish-inspired scales that could slide over each other. In some respects this is
a refinement of the swing-wing design.

Some paints and roof tiles have been engineered to be self-cleaning by

copying the mechanism from the Nelumbo lotus.[6]
Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) are the thin-film material often used to
fabricate fish tank thermometers or mood rings, that change color with
temperature changes. They change color because their molecules are
arranged in a helical or chiral arrangement and with temperature the
pitch of that helical structure changes, reflecting different wavelengths of
light. Chiral Photonics, Inc. has abstracted the self-assembled structure
of the organic CLCs to produce analogous optical devices using tiny
lengths of inorganic, twisted glass fiber.
Nanostructures and physical mechanisms that produce the shining Lotus leaf surface, rendered:
color of butterfly wings were reproduced in silico by Greg Parker, microscopic view
professor of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of
Southampton and research student Luca Plattner in the field of
photonics, which is electronics using photons as the information carrier
instead of electrons.
The wing structure of the blue morpho butterfly was studied and the way it reflects light was mimicked to create an
RFID tag that can be read through water and on metal.[7]
The wing structure of butterflies has also inspired the creation of new nanosensors to detect explosives.[8]
Neuromorphic chips, silicon retinae or cochleae, has wiring that is modelled after real neural networks. S.a.:
connectivity.
Technoecosystems or 'EcoCyborg' systems involve the coupling of natural ecological processes to technological
ones which mimic ecological functions. This results in the creation of a self-regulating hybrid system.[9] Research
into this field was initiated by Howard T. Odum,[10] who perceived the structure and emergy dynamics of
ecosystems as being analogous to energy flow between components of an electrical circuit.

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Medical adhesives involving glue and tiny nano-hairs are being developed based on the physical structures found in
the feet of geckos.
Computer viruses also show similarities with biological viruses in their way to curb program-oriented information
towards self-reproduction and dissemination.
The cooling system of the Eastgate Centre building in Harare was modeled after a termite mound to achieve very
efficient passive cooling.
Adhesive which allows mussels to stick to rocks, piers and boat hulls inspired bioadhesive gel for blood vessels.[11]
Through the field of bionics, new aircraft designs with far greater agility and other advantages may be created. This
has been described by Geoff Spedding and Anders Hedenström in an article in Journal of Experimental Biology.
Similar statements were also made by John Videler and Eize Stamhuis in their book Avian Flight [12] and in the
article they present in Science about LEVs.[13] John Videler and Eize Stamhuis have since worked out real-life
improvements to airplane wings, using bionics research. This research in bionics may also be used to create more
efficient helicopters or miniature UAVs. This latter was stated by Bret Tobalske in an article in Science about
Hummingbirds.[14] Bret Tobalske has thus now started work on creating these miniature UAVs which may be used
for espionage. UC Berkeley as well as ESA have finally also been working in a similar direction and created the
Robofly [15] (a miniature UAV) and the Entomopter (a UAV which can walk, crawl and fly).[16]
A bio-inspired mechanical device can generate plasma in water via cavitation using the morphological accurate
snapping shrimp claw. This was described in detail by Xin Tang and David Staack in an article published in Science
Advances.[17]

Specific uses of the term

In medicine
Bionics refers to the flow of concepts from biology to engineering and
v ice v ersa. Hence, there are two slightly different points of v iew
regarding the meaning of the word.

In medicine, bionics means the replacement or enhancement of

Induced sensorimotor brain plasticity
organs or other body parts by mechanical v ersions. Bionic implants controls pain in phantom limb
differ from mere prostheses by mimicking the original function v ery patients-ncomms13209-s2
closely , or ev en surpassing it.

Bionics' German equiv alent, Bionik, alway s adheres to the broader meaning, in that it tries to dev elop
engineering solutions from biological models. This approach is motiv ated by the fact that biological solutions
will usually be optimized by ev olutionary forces.

While the technologies that make bionic implants possible are dev eloping gradually , a few successful bionic
dev ices exist, a well known one being the Australian-inv ented multi-channel cochlear implant (bionic ear), a
dev ice for deaf people. Since the bionic ear, many bionic dev ices hav e emerged and work is progressing on
bionics solutions for other sensory disorders (e.g. v ision and balance). Bionic research has recently prov ided
treatments for medical problems such as neurological and psy chiatric conditions, for example Parkinson's
disease and epilepsy . [1 8 ]

By 2004 fully functional artificial hearts were dev eloped. Significant progress is expected with the adv ent of
nanotechnology . A well-known example of a proposed nanodev ice is a respirocy te, an artificial red cell, designed
(though not built y et) by Robert Freitas.

Kwabena Boahen from Ghana was a professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the Univ ersity of
Pennsy lv ania. During his eight y ears at Penn, he dev eloped a silicon retina that was able to process images in
the same manner as a liv ing retina. He confirmed the results by comparing the electrical signals from his silicon
retina to the electrical signals produced by a salamander ey e while the two retinas were looking at the same
image.

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In 2007 the Scottish company Touch Bionics launched the first commercially av ailable bionic hand, named "i-
Limb Hand". According to the firm, by May 2010 it has been fitted to more than 1,200 patients worldwide. [1 9 ]

The Nichi-In group is working on biomimicking scaffolds in tissue engineering, stem cells and regenerativ e
medicine hav e giv en a detailed classification on biomimetics in medicine. [2 0 ]

On 21 July 2015, the BBC’s medical correspondent Fergus Walsh reported, "Surgeons in Manchester hav e
performed the first bionic ey e implant in a patient with the most common cause of sight loss in the dev eloped
world. Ray Fly nn, 80, has dry age-related macular degeneration which has led to the total loss of his central
v ision. He is using a retinal implant which conv erts v ideo images from a miniature v ideo camera worn on his
glasses. He can now make out the direction of white lines on a computer screen using the retinal implant." The
implant, known as the Argus II and manufactured in the US by the company Second Sight Medical Products, had
been used prev iously in patients who were blind as the result of the rare inherited degenerativ e ey e disease
retinitis pigmentosa. [2 1 ]

Politics
A political form of biomimicry is bioregional democracy , wherein political borders conform to natural
ecoregions rather than human cultures or the outcomes of prior conflicts.

Critics of these approaches often argue that ecological selection itself is a poor model of minimizing
manufacturing complexity or conflict, and that the free market relies on conscious cooperation, agreement, and
standards as much as on efficiency – more analogous to sexual selection. Charles Darwin himself contended that
both were balanced in natural selection – although his contemporaries often av oided frank talk about sex, or any
suggestion that free market success was based on persuasion, not v alue.

Adv ocates, especially in the anti-globalization mov ement, argue that the mating-like processes of
standardization, financing and marketing, are already examples of runaway ev olution – rendering a sy stem that
appeals to the consumer but which is inefficient at use of energy and raw materials. Biomimicry , they argue, is an
effectiv e strategy to restore basic efficiency .

Biomimicry is also the second principle of Natural Capitalism.

Other uses
Business biomimetics is the latest dev elopment in the application of biomimetics. Specifically it applies
principles and practice from biological sy stems to business strategy , process, organisation design and strategic
thinking. It has been successfully used by a range of industries in FMCG, defence, central gov ernment, packaging
and business serv ices. Based on the work by Phil Richardson at the Univ ersity of Bath[2 2 ] the approach was
launched at the House of Lords in May 2009.

In a more specific meaning, it is a creativ ity technique that tries to use biological prototy pes to get ideas for
engineering solutions. This approach is motiv ated by the fact that biological organisms and their organs hav e
been well optimized by ev olution. In chemistry , a biomimetic sy nthesis is a chemical sy nthesis inspired by
biochemical processes.

Another, more recent meaning of the term bionics refers to merging organism and machine. This approach
results in a hy brid sy stem combining biological and engineering parts, which can also be referred as a cy bernetic
organism (cy borg). Practical realization of this was demonstrated in Kev in Warwick's implant experiments
bringing about ultrasound input v ia his own nerv ous sy stem.

See also
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Biomechatronics Cyborg (novel)

Biomedical engineering History of technology
Biomimetics Implant
The Bionic Woman Index of environmental articles
Bionic Woman (2007 TV series) Prosthesis
Bionic architecture The Six Million Dollar Man
Biophysics Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
Biotechnology Terminator
Cyborg

References
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44&ots=u_Vt-ceEvU&dq=%22bionical%20creativity%20engineering%22&pg=PA644#v=onepage&q=%22bionical%20
creativity%20engineering%22&f=false) By Dr. Steve Esomba, Published 2012
2. "bionics" (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bionics). Online Etymology Dictionary.
3. Research Interests (http://www.duke.edu/~jme17/Joshua_E._Mendoza-Elias/Research_Interests.html#Neuroscience
_-_Neural_Plasticity_in) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20121015142157/http://www.duke.edu/~jme17/Joshua
_E._Mendoza-Elias/Research_Interests.html#Neuroscience_-_Neural_Plasticity_in) 15 October 2012[Date mismatch]
at the Wayback Machine. Duke.edu. Retrieved on 2011-04-23.
4. Vincent, J. F. V.; Bogatyreva, O. A.; Bogatyrev, N. R.; Bowyer, A. & Pahl, A.-K. (2006). "Biomimetics—its practice
and theory" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1664643). Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 3 (9):
471–482. doi:10.1098/rsif.2006.0127 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsif.2006.0127). PMC 1664643 (https://www.ncbi.nl
m.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1664643). PMID 16849244 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16849244).
5. Roth, R. R. (1983). "The Foundation of Bionics" (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/403622/summary). Perspectives in
Biology and Medicine. 26 (2): 229–242. doi:10.1353/pbm.1983.0005 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fpbm.1983.0005).
ISSN 1529-8795 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1529-8795).
6. Sto Lotusan — Biomimicry Paint (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/09/sto_lotusan_bio.php). TreeHugger.
Retrieved on 2011-04-23.
7. RFID Through Water and on Metal with 99.9% Reliability (Episode 015) (https://web.archive.org/web/2008101500123
9/http://www.rfidradio.com/?p=26), RFID Radio
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-nanosensors) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20101017124358/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-08/
13/butterfly-wing-nanosensors) 17 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Wired.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-04-23.
9. Clark, O. G.; Kok, R.; Lacroix, R. (1999). "Mind and autonomy in engineered biosystems" (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20110818131121/http://infolib.hua.edu.vn/Fulltext/ChuyenDe2009/CD131/53.pdf) (PDF). Engineering Applications
of Artificial Intelligence. 12 (3): 389–399. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.54.635 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?d
oi=10.1.1.54.635). doi:10.1016/S0952-1976(99)00010-X (https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS0952-1976%2899%2900010-X).
Archived from the original (http://infolib.hua.edu.vn/Fulltext/ChuyenDe2009/CD131/53.pdf) (PDF) on 18 August 2011.
10. Howard T. Odum (15 May 1994). Ecological and general systems: an introduction to systems ecology (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=C-IUAQAAIAAJ). University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-0-87081-320-7. Retrieved 23 April
2011.
11. Mussel glue inspires bioadhesive gel for blood vessels | RobAid (http://www.robaid.com/bionics/mussel-glue-inspires
-bioadhesive-gel-for-blood-vessels.htm). RobAid.com. Retrieved on 2012-12-13.
12. John J. Videler (October 2006). Avian Flight (https://books.google.com/books?id=5Xr9NZdgzP0C). Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-929992-8. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
13. Videler, J. J.; Stamhuis, EJ; Povel, GD (2004). "Leading-Edge Vortex Lifts Swifts". Science. 306 (5703): 1960–1962.
doi:10.1126/science.1104682 (https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.1104682). PMID 15591209 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.n
ih.gov/pubmed/15591209).
14. Cartier, Stephanie (Fall 2005). "The Flight Of The Hummingbird Decoded" (https://depts.washington.edu/nwst/issue
s/index.php?issueID=fall_2005&storyID=742). Northwest Science & Technology.

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15. How Do Flies Turn? (http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/mm/spingarnkoff/flyorama/robofly.html) Archived (https://

web.archive.org/web/20091216030649/http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/mm/spingarnkoff/flyorama/robofly.html)
16 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Journalism.berkeley.edu. Retrieved on 2011-04-23.
16. Design inspired by nature (http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/biomimetics/index.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20090921054017/http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/biomimetics/index.htm) 21 September 2009 at the Wayback
Machine, ESA
17. Tang, Xin; Staack, David (March 2019). "Bioinspired mechanical device generates plasma in water via cavitation" (htt
p://advances.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aau7765). Science Advances. 5 (3): eaau7765.
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issn/2375-2548).
18. "Bionic devices" (http://www.bionicsqueensland.com.au/bionics-in-our-world/). Bionics Queensland. Retrieved
27 April 2018.
19. Bionic hand that uses wireless technology unveiled (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1273258/i-Limb-P
ulse-Bionic-hand-uses-wireless-technology-unveiled.html), Mail Online, 6 May 2010
20. Biomimetics and NCRM, Nichi-In classification of Biomimetics Biomimicry tissue engineering, stem cells, cell
therapy (http://www.ncrm.org/biomimetics.htm). Ncrm.org. Retrieved on 2011-04-23.
21. Walsh, Fergus (22 July 2015). "Bionic eye implant world first" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33571412). BBC
News Online. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
22. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath (http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/biomimetics/) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20090817164045/http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/biomimetics/) 17 August 2009 at the
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Sources
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. 1997. Janine Benyus.
Biomimicry for Optimization, Control, and Automation, Springer-Verlag, London, UK, 2005, Kevin M. Passino
"Ideas Stolen Right from Nature" (https://web.archive.org/web/20050416075347/http://www.wired.com/news/technolo
gy/0%2C1282%2C65642%2C00.html?tw=wn_story_top5) (Wired)
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Convention, Seattle, WA, 1983, Jill E. Steele
Bionics: Nature as a Model. 1993. PRO FUTURA Verlag GmbH, München, Umweltstiftung WWF Deutschland
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1-2. 2010. Ch. 1-2. pp. 126–136.
Lipov A.N. At the origins of modern bionics. Bio-morphological formation in an artificial environment // Polygnosis. №
3. 2010. Part 3. Рр. 80-91.

External links

Institutes
Bionics Queensland (http://www.bionicsqueensland.com.au/)
Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering at UCL (University College London) (http://cnie.org.uk/)
Biological Robotics at the University of Tulsa (http://personal.utulsa.edu/~jas019/index.html)
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering (http://wyss.harvard.edu/)
The Biomimicry Institute (http://www.biomimicry.org/)
Center for Biologically Inspired Design (http://www.cbid.gatech.edu/)
Biologically Inspired Design group at the Design and Intelligence Lab, Georgia Tech (http://dilab.gatech.edu/biologica
lly-inspired-design/)
Center for Biologically Inspired Materials & Material Systems (https://web.archive.org/web/20101015004427/http://w
ww.cbimms.duke.edu/)
Biologically Inspired Product Development at the University of Maryland (http://www.bioinspired.umd.edu/)
The Biologically Inspired Materials Institute (https://web.archive.org/web/20170926041615/http://bimat.org/)

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Center for Biologically Inspired Robotics Research at Case Western Reserve University (http://biorobots.cwru.edu/)
Biologically Inspired Materials Institute (https://web.archive.org/web/20101025093039/http://bimat.princeton.edu/htm
l/overview.html)
Bio Inspired Engineering at the Applied University Kufstein, Austria (https://www.fh-kufstein.ac.at/eng/Study/Post-Gr
aduate/Bio-Inspired-Engineering/)
Laboratory for Nature Inspired Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University (http://www.mne.psu.edu/wong/)

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