Emerging Technologies Inspired by Plants - Bioinspired Approaches for Human-Centric Technologies - page 111

4.2 Features of Plant Roots and Their Use in the Artificial
World
The term biomimetics, which is the concept of transferring ideas and principles
from biology to technology, was first used by Dr. Otto Smith in 1957. Dr. Smith
studied natural biological processes and developed methods and machines that
replicated those actions. However, the bioinspired approach dates back much
further. For example, Leonardo da Vinci studied the flight of birds and designed
machines, including the first “humanoid” (a mechanical knight), but he never
developed the machines, which might have been due to a lack of the appropriate
technology. Nature has spent 3.8 billion years on “R&D” projects and offers many
solutions that humans can use as inspiration to develop materials, devices, behav-
ioral controls, or computing that aim to improve their quality of life. This is a
continuous process. Among living organisms, plants represent valuable biological
models to illustrate physical principles or develop mechanical devices. The role of
plants in our ecosystems is well understood. Plants dominate every landscape and
represent 99 % of the biomass on Earth. Plants are crucial for our survival because
they produce oxygen, and plants are located at the lowest level in the food chain,
and thus they are fundamental in the life cycle and ecosystems. Plants are also
important in agriculture, entertainment, and industry. Plants are often considered to
be passive organisms that are unable to move, communicate, and escape from
hostile environments. This interpretation is not very different from Aristotle's
classification of plants and animals in his topic De Anima . In his classification,
plants were located in the middle of the spectrum between living and nonliving
organisms. Plants were considered to have a very low-level soul, called a vegetative
soul, because they lack the ability to move, and thus they did not require senses. In
recent years, engineers, material, and computer scientists have developed an
increased interest in plants. There are many examples of technological solutions
that were inspired by plants. One common example is the lotus effect, in which the
leaves of water-repellent plants, such as the Nelumbo nucifera (lotus) and
Colocasia esculenta , are superhydrophobic and self-cleaning due to hierarchical
roughness (i.e., microstructures formed by papillose epidermal cells covered with
epicuticular wax tubules) and the presence of a hydrophobic coating (Bhushan
2009 ). Many artificial solutions (e.g., StoColor Lotusan ® and new micro- and nano-
patterned polymeric- or graphene-based materials) have been developed based on
the study of this plant feature (Zang et al. 2013 ). Nepenthes pitcher plants use
structures to hold an intermediary liquid that acts as a repellent surface. Using this
concept, Wong and colleagues ( 2011 ) recently developed “slippery liquid-infused
porous surfaces” (SLIPS) that consist of a film of lubricating liquid held in place by
a micro- or nanoporous substrate. Velcro is a hook-and-loop fastener used in many
everyday applications and was developed in 1948 by a Swiss engineer, George de
Mestral, who observed that the hooks in plant burrs ( Arctium lappa ) adhered to the
fur of his dog. In 1955, he patented Velcro, which represents one of the most
successful bioinspired products.