Inspired by extraordinary camouflaging abilities of organisms such as squid and zebrafish, a group of researchers from the University of Bristol have created artificial muscles that can change their state and appearance at the push of a button, and demonstrated two different transforming mechanisms that could lead to new clothes with camouflaging tricks analogous to… »
As a part of DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program, with goal to create and demonstrate significant scientific and engineering advances in robot mobility and manipulation capabilities, engineers from Boston Dynamics developed Cheetah – a robot named after the animal it got inspired from that managed to beat the previous land speed record for… »
We already published several articles about studies where spiders served as inspiration for biomimicry and analysis, but the new study by the researchers from the University of Akron developed the new biocompatible synthetic material similar to a specific kind of silk spun by orb spiders. The material could be used as new kinds of medical… »
Inspired by massive Arapaima fish which lives in is Brazil’s Amazon waters, a group of researchers from UC San Diego are developing new materials suitable for armor and panels. Biomimicry of Arapaima’s complex scales could lead to new ceramics that are both tough and flexible, making them ideal for use in soldier’s body armor, fuel… »
There are numerous examples in nature where ‘active touch’ plays a primary role in how an animal finds its way around and how it behaves. Inspired by the Etruscan shrew, one of the world’s tiniest mammals, researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) developed Shrewbot – the newest generation of a robots that use sophisticated… »
Among other news and articles we post in the bionics category, one of the most interesting subjects we cover there is biomimicry – imitating nature in man-made systems. Although it can be outperformed, nature still does provide inspiration for more efficient and environmentally friendly technologies. Bionics is becoming more increasingly used in design, materials science… »
Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have applied biomimicry of insect cuticle – tough but flexible, non-mineral outer coverings that provide protection – to develop a similar material they named Shrilk. The new material is able to mimic the exceptional strength, toughness, and versatility of the extraordinary material, while… »
Eucalyptus macocarpa, which is also known as The Rose of the West or Mottlecah, is a mallee Eucalyptus that is native to the south-west of Western Australia and noted for its large, spectacular flowers. Murdoch University researchers have discovered that it has unique self-cleaning and water-repellent properties which could be used in new nanotechnology applications…. »
