In the last decade, bionics got a strong impulse for new development, as modern technology allows a miniature copy of natural structures with unprecedented precision. At the same time, modern bionics is largely associated with not with designs of yesterday, but with the development of new materials that replicate the natural analogues, robotics and artificial organs. The concept of bionics is not new. For example, 3,000 years ago the Chinese were trying to adopt a method of manufacturing insect silk. But new technologies of 20thcentury allowed to copy a miniature natural design with unprecedented accuracy previously. So, a few years ago, scientists were able to analyze the DNA to create artificial spider and web analogue (known as Kevlar). I will go over several promising areas of modern bionics and are the most famous instances of borrowing from nature.
Bionics (proper English title – “Biometrics”) – a promising scientific and technological direction of borrowing from the nature of valuable ideas and their realization in the form of engineering and design solutions, as well as new information technologies. The subject of bionics is known under different names: for example, in America, usually referred to as “Biometrics” and, sometimes, bio-genesis. The essence of this promising scientific and technological direction is, to borrow from nature valuable ideas and implement them in the form of original design and design solutions, as well as new information technologies. In the last decade, bionics has gained considerable momentum to the new development. This is due to the fact that modern technology moving at fast pace and allow you to copy a miniature natural design with unprecedented accuracy previously. Contemporary bionics is primarily associated with the development of new materials that replicate the natural robotics and artificial organs.
The main difference between human engineering designs from those that are created by nature, is the incredible energy of the latter. Improved and evolving over millions of years, living organisms have learned to live, move and reproduce with minimal energy. This phenomenon is based on the unique metabolism of animals, and the optimal exchange of energy between different forms of life. Thus, by borrowing from nature Engineering significantly we can increase the energy efficiency of modern technology.
Natural materials are inexpensive and distributed in large numbers, and their “quality” is much better than those made by man. Humans use a rather “blunt” energy-intensive processes for the receipt of any heavy-duty materials, and nature makes them much more intelligent and effective ways. Nature uses the surrounding natural substances (sugars, amino acids, salts) combined with the original design and ultra-efficient organic catalysts. In many cases these process was not available to human understanding. Bionics, in turn, has been studying and copying nature these “know-how” processes.
The shape of biological objects (eg, an evolution tree) is usually created as a result of a long adaptive process, taking into account long-term impact as friendly (for example, support from other trees in the forest) and aggressive factors. Growth and development include interactive regulation at the cellular level. All this together provides incredible strength of the product throughout its life cycle. Such adaptability in the process of formation leads to the creation of a unique adaptive structure, called bionics in the intelligence system. At the same time our industry are not yet available technology to create intelligent systems that interact with the environment and can adapt by changing their properties. Scientists are now trying to design a system with at least minimal adaptability to the environment. For example, modern cars are equipped with numerous sensors that measure the load on individual nodes and may, for example, to automatically change the tire pressure. However, this is only the beginning of long journey. Perspectives of Intelligent Systems fascinating. The ideal intelligent system able to independently develop its own design and change their shape in various ways, such as adding missing material in certain parts of the structure by changing the chemical composition of individual nodes, etc.
The Beginning of Bionics.
Almost any technological problem that confronts the designers or engineers, had already been successfully solved by other creatures. When faced with some kind of engineering or design problem, bionic engineers are looking for a solution to the “scientific basis” of unlimited size, which belongs to the animals and plants. So did Gustave Eiffel, who in 1889 created the Eiffel Tower. This facility is considered one of the earliest examples of the use of bionics in engineering. The design of the Eiffel Tower is based on the scientific work of Swiss professor of anatomy Hermann von Meyer. For 40 years before the construction of the Paris miracle of engineering professor studied the bone structure of the femoral head in the place where it is bent at an angle and is included in the joint. And yet for some reason, the bone does not break under the weight of the body. Von Meyer found the bones of the head is covered with intricate network of tiny pits, through which the load is distributed on an amazing bone. The network had a strict geometric structure, which documented the professor.
In 1866, Swiss engineer Karl Cullman (Carl Cullman) summarized the theoretical basis for the discovery of Von Meyer, a 20-year natural load distribution curves using calipers were used Eiffel.
Another famous Swiss engineer borrowing what George de Mestrallet did in 1955. He often walked with his dog and noticed that its hair always stick to some strange plants. Charter constantly clean the dog, the engineer decided to find out the reason for the weeds to stick to wool. Examining the phenomenon of de Mestrallet has determined that it is possible thanks to small hooks on the cockle bur’s fruit (the so-called weed). As a result, the engineer realized the importance of this discovery, and eight years later patented the convenient “Velcro» Velcro, which is now widely used in the manufacture of not only military but also civilian clothes.
Today’s Research.
Contemporary bionics is largely associated with the development of new materials that mimic natural ones. Noways, some scientists are trying to find analogues of the human body to create, for example, an artificial ear (it readily available in the U.S.) or artificial eye (in preparation).
Developers also have concentrated on the study of natural organisms. Researchers at Bell Labs, the structural unit of Lucent Technologies, have found that deep-sea sponges contain fiber, the properties are very close to the most modern models of fibers used in telecommunications networks. Moreover, in some ways a natural fiber may be better than artificial. Scientists were amazed at how close were the structure of natural fibers to those models that were developed in laboratories for many years. Although transparency in the central part of the fiber is slightly lower than the best synthetic samples, natural fibers are more resistant to mechanical stress, particularly at break and bend. It is these mechanical properties make it vulnerable to optical transmission network information – in the formation of cracks or breaks in optical fiber it is necessary to replace, but it is a very expensive operation. Scientists at Bell Labs give the following fact which demonstrates an extremely high strength and flexibility of natural fiber, – they can tie a knot, and thus they do not lose their optical properties. Such action with artificial fiber will inevitably lead to failure or, at least, the formation of internal cracks, which ultimately also means the loss of functional properties of the material. Scientists do not yet know how to reproduce in the laboratory this work of nature. The fact that the present optical fiber is obtained from the melt furnaces at very high temperatures, and sea sponges, of course, in the course of development it is synthesized by chemical vapor deposition at a temperature of sea water. If we can simulate this process, it will be, among other things, also economically profitable. According to the results of tests it was found that material from the skeleton of the 20-centimeter-long jaws can pass the digital signal is not worse than the modern communication cables, with the natural fiber is much stronger than human because of the presence of organic membranes. The second feature, which surprised scientists – it is possible to form such a substance at a temperature of about zero degrees Celsius, while in plants Lucent used for this high-temperature processing. Now scientists think about how to increase the length of new material since the skeletons of marine sponges do not exceed 15 cm.
In addition to developing new materials, scientists are reporting discovery of technology that are based on “intellectual potential” of nature. The device developed by Xerox (AirJet) mimics the behavior of swarms of termites, where everyone takes independent decisions, but the school is moving toward a common goal, such as the construction of the nest. Printed circuit equipped with a set of air nozzles, each of which operates independently, with no CPU instruction, but at the same time they contribute to achieving common objectives – the promotion of the paper. The device has no moving parts that can reduce the cost of production. Each printed circuit 144 includes a set of 4 nozzles directed in different directions, as well as 32 thousand optical sensors and micro controllers.
Today is very popular among developers point of view is that in the future robots will be able to operate effectively only if they will be most similar to humans. Scientists and engineers have to operate in the city and home, that is ‘human’ interior – with stairways, doors and other obstacles. Therefore they are required to meet a man by the size and on the principles of movement. In other words, the robot must be the legs (wheels, tracks, etc). Scientists from Stanford University have been experimenting for almost three years with miniature hexapod robot, geksapodom built on the results of the study of movement cockroach. Small (about 17 cm in length) six-legged robot (geksapod) from Stanford University already runs at a speed of 55 cm / sec. Designed first on January 25, 2000, today’s geksapod was on is now running very smartly designed – at 55 cm (more than three of their own lengths) per second – and just as successfully overcoming the obstacles.
Nature provides the engineers and scientists endless opportunities to borrow ideas and technologies. Earlier, people were not able to see what’s in front of them literally, but modern technology and computer modeling helps a little bit to sort out into the surrounding world, and try to copy it from some of the details for their own use.
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