Modeling the Cellular Level of Natural Sensing with the Functional Basis for the Design of Biomimetic Sensor Technology

After surveying biology for natural sensing solutions six main types of extraneous sensing were identified across the biological kingdoms. Natural sensing happens at the cellular level with receptor cells that respond to photo, chemo, eletro, mechano, thermo and magnetoreceptor-type stimuli. At the highest level, all natural sensing systems have the same reaction sequence to stimuli: perception, transduction, and response. This research is exploring methods for knowledge transfer between the biological and engineering domains. With the use of the Functional Basis, a well-defined modeling language, the ingenuity of natural sensing can be captured through functional models and crossed over into the engineering domain, for design or inspiration. Furthermore, a morph-matrix that lists each component in the model can easily compare and contrast the biological and engineering design components, effectively bridging the two design domains. The six main types of receptor families were modeled for the Animalia and Plantae Kingdoms, from the highest to the 4th sub-level, with emphasis on the transduction sequence. To make the biological sensing models accessible to design engineers they were placed in the Missouri University of Science & Technology Design Repository as artifacts. The models can then be utilized for concept generation and biomimetic design through searching the design repository by functional characteristics. An example of a biomimetic navigation product based on the principle of electric fish is provided to illustrate the utilization of the natural sensing models, morph-matrices and design repository

Automated Retrieval of Non-Engineering Domain Solutions to Engineering Problems

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityBiological inspiration for engineering design has occurred through a variety of techniques such as creation and use of databases, keyword searches of biological information in natural-language format, prior knowledge of biology, and chance observations of nature. This research focuses on utilizing the reconciled Functional Basis function and flow terms to identify suitable biological inspiration for function based design. The organized search provides two levels of results: (1) associated with verb function only and (2) narrowed results associated with verb-noun (function-flow). A set of heuristics has been complied to promote efficient searching using this technique. An example for creating smart flooring is also presented and discussed.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Métricas para la creatividad, y su enfoque para la enseñanza en las universidades

Ponencia presentada en el XIII Congreso Internacional de Ingeniería de Proyectos celebrado en Badajoz , 8-10 de julio de 2009Creativity is a complex, unpredictable and uncontrollable reality a priori. For that reason, its evaluation seems to be complex, this is, how can creativity be measured? Present work pretends to answer this question through the study of different creativity metrics from three different points of view: creative individual, creative process, and creative product. It is pretended to put this metrics into practice within the educational field in universities. This creativity evaluation can be perceived as thread that can damage creativity. However, the fact of knowing the necessary criterions for measure his own creativity and its results can be considered as an essential help for professors can distinguish those that is creative from that is not, and for students can know the criterions that will be used to evaluate them, so consequently that can get better results.La creatividad es una realidad compleja, impredecible e incontrolable, a priori. Por ello, su evaluación se prevé como compleja, es decir, ¿cómo se puede medir la creatividad? El presente trabajo pretende dar respuesta a esta pregunta a través del estudio de las diferentes métricas para la creatividad enfocadas desde tres puntos de vista diferentes: el individuo creativo, el proceso creativo y el producto creativo. Estas métricas pretenden ser puestas en práctica en el ámbito docente universitario. Esta evaluación de la creatividad puede ser percibida como una amenaza que puede dañar la creatividad, sin embargo, conocer los criterios necesarios para medir la propia creatividad y la de sus resultados se puede considerar como una ayuda imprescindible para que el profesor pueda distinguir aquello creativo de lo que no lo es, y para los alumnos para que puedan conocer los criterios por los que serán evaluados y, a consecuencia, obtener mejores resultados

On relating functional modeling approaches: abstracting functional models from behavioral models

This paper presents a survey of functional modeling approaches and describes a strategy to establish functional knowledge exchange between them. This survey is focused on a comparison of function meanings and representations. It is argued that functions represented as input-output flow transformations correspond to behaviors in the approaches that characterize functions as intended behaviors. Based on this result a strategy is presented to relate the different meanings of function between the approaches, establishing functional knowledge exchange between them. It is shown that this strategy is able to preserve more functional information than the functional knowledge exchange methodology of Kitamura, Mizoguchi, and co-workers. The strategy proposed here consists of two steps. In step one, operation-on-flow functions are translated into behaviors. In step two, intended behavior functions are derived from behaviors. The two-step strategy and its benefits are demonstrated by relating functional models of a power screwdriver between methodologies

Relación entre el grado de creatividad y la calidad de los resultados de diseño

This work analyses the relationship between the degree of creativity, measured through the level of novelty and the level of usefulness, and the quality of the design outcomes. To do so, a total of twelve conceptual designs obtained in a design experiment were measured and compared. In this experiment, four teams of three designers solved different design problems, applying brainstorming, SCAMPER and functional analysis as design methods. The quality of the design solutions have been evaluated in terms of feasibility and effectiveness by experts through a questionnaire. Feasibility and effectiveness were then compared with the novelty, usefulness and creativity, the results showing that as novelty increases, feasibility tends to be lower, and the more usefulness the design offers, the more effective it isEste trabajo analiza la relación entre el grado de creatividad, medido a través del nivel de novedad y el nivel de utilidad, con la calidad de las soluciones del diseño. Para ello, un total de doce soluciones conceptuales obtenidas en un experimento de diseño han sido medidas y comparadas. En el experimento cuatro equipos de tres diseñadores cada uno, resolvieron distintos problemas de diseño aplicando el brainstorming, el SCAMPER y el análisis funcional como métodos de diseño. La calidad de las soluciones de diseño se ha evaluado por expertos en términos de factibilidad y efectividad usando un cuestionario. La factibilidad y la efectividad se comparado con la novedad, la utilidad y la creatividad, observando que cuando aumenta la novedad, la factibilidad tiende a reducirse y que, cuando mayor es la utilidad mayor es el grado de efectividad también.This study has been possible thanks to the research projects P1·1B2010-51 “Estimulación y evaluación de la creatividad en el diseño de productos en equipos de diseño distribuidos” and P11A2008-04 “Determinación de la influencia de métodos creativos en el proceso de diseño y del grado de novedad y utilidad de las soluciones”, funded by the Universitat Jaume

Tools to Incorporate Biomimetic into Product Design- A Review

This paper reviewed available biomimetic tools which are being utilized to enhance and aid the design of products.  So far, tools that have been used to gain insight of biomimetic products include DANE databases and IDEA-INSPIRE, Natural Language analysis tool and Asknature.org website. This review focused on the representations, characteristics and biomimetic information retrieval process of each search tools studied by previous researchers. Finally, the conclusions and important summaries were presented accordingly in the form of a table. Based on the findings, there are still problems and challenges regarding the applications of each tool in the bio-inspired design process. Some suggestions have been made to further improve the conditions

Creative design inspired by biological knowledge: Technologies and methods

Biological knowledge is becoming an important source of inspiration for developing creative solutions to engineering design problems and even has a huge potential in formulating ideas that can help firms compete successfully in a dynamic market. To identify the technologies and methods that can facilitate the development of biologically inspired creative designs, this research briefly reviews the existing biological-knowledge-based theories and methods and examines the application of biological-knowledge-inspired designs in various fields. Afterward, this research thoroughly examines the four dimensions of key technologies that underlie the biologically inspired design (BID) process. This research then discusses the future development trends of the BID process before presenting the conclusions

Cellular Helmet Liner Design through Bio-inspired Structures and Topology Optimization of Compliant Mechanism Lattices

The continuous development of sport technologies constantly demands advancements in protective headgear to reduce the risk of head injuries. This article introduces new cellular helmet liner designs through two approaches. The first approach is the study of energy-absorbing biological materials. The second approach is the study of lattices comprised of force-diverting compliant mechanisms. On the one hand, bio-inspired liners are generated through the study of biological, hierarchical materials. An emphasis is given on structures in nature that serve similar concussion-reducing functions as a helmet liner. Inspiration is drawn from organic and skeletal structures. On the other hand, compliant mechanism lattice (CML)-based liners use topology optimization to synthesize rubber cellular unit cells with effective positive and negative Poisson's ratios. Three lattices are designed using different cellular unit cell arrangements, namely, all positive, all negative, and alternating effective Poisson's ratios. The proposed cellular (bio-inspired and CML-based) liners are embedded between two polycarbonate shells, thereby, replacing the traditional expanded polypropylene foam liner used in standard sport helmets. The cellular liners are analyzed through a series of 2D extruded ballistic impact simulations to determine the best performing liner topology and its corresponding rubber hardness. The cellular design with the best performance is compared against an expanded polypropylene foam liner in a 3D simulation to appraise its protection capabilities and verify that the 2D extruded design simulations scale to an effective 3D design

Evaluating Biological Systems for Their Potential in Engineering Design

A team of biologists, engineers, and cognitive scientists has been working together for the past five years, teaching an upper level undergraduate course in biologically inspired design where half the class of forty students are biologists and other physical scientists and the other half are engineers (mechanical, materials, industrial, others). From this experience, we provide insights on how to teach students to evaluate biological systems for their potential in engineering design. We have found that at first, students are not familiar with developing their own question since, in most engineering design classes, the problem is prescribed along with clients who would like to have them solved. In our class, we challenge the students with defining a significant problem. The students with common challenges then are placed together in an interdisciplinary team with at least one biologist and one engineer. A detailed problem decomposition follows, identifying the hierarchy of systems and clearly specifying functions. This is essential for the next step of analogical reasoning. Analogical reasoning as applied to BID is a process of matching biological functions to engineered functions and transferring functions and mechanisms from biology to engineering. For each desired function, students may ask: what mechanisms does nature use for achieving the function? This question guides the exploration of the wealth of knowledge in biology by asking them to clearly define the function of interest, then search for natural processes that perform this function. To expand on this search space, the students next make a list of the same function performed by other organisms for a comparative analysis to deepen their understanding and extract key biological principles. Students then invert the function and identify keywords to search. They also must refer to general biology books to identify key organisms that perform the function the best (and hence are included in textbooks). Using databases, such as the Web of Science functions, they can try to select the ‘best’ articles. If one is lucky, a single biological system may serve as a near perfect match to lead to a successful BID. However, some of the most innovative designs are built from more than one biological system, something that evolution cannot always do. We call these compound analogies. At this point, the design iteration can take on a different approach, namely solution based rather than problem based. Here, the team takes a natural system and asks, how can this biological principle improve an engineered design or function. These twin processes: solution vs problem-based approaches both have led to innovative and creative design concepts in this interdisciplinary class. Key words: Biological systems; engineering design; interdisciplinary clas

Enhancing creativity through Biological Stimuli during new products ideation

The development of new and innovative products consists in a competitive advantage, allowing companies to overcome competitors, maintain or even increase its market share. As the product development cycle is shortening, a greater effort is required at the ideation of new technologies and products. In this context, the bio-inspired design has been receiving attention as a creativity strengthening method. However, the majority of methods and tools proposed in this field present biological stimuli in the form of literature extracts, requiring a great cognitive effort from the design teams in abstracting principles to generate ideas. In this paper a systematic approach to biological stimuli development is presented, as well as its contribution during the ideation process. An experiment was conducted on the context of a product design course. As result, it was evidenced that the biological stimulators contributed to the increase of the ideas\u27 utility and variety, favoring the innovation process