Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Robotics is one biomimetic area in which advances are continually being made. The movie
industry has created a vision of robots that are human-like at a level significantly far beyond what is
currently feasible. However, even though it will be a long time before such robotic capabilities
become a reality, there are already numerous examples of accomplishments (Bar-Cohen and
Breazeal, 2003). Initially, robots were not well received because they were considered too bulky
and too expensive, requiring major amount of work to employ, maintain, modify, and upgrade.
Solving these problems by making robots more biomimetic became feasible when powerful
lightweight microprocessors were introduced. These improvements included high computation
speed, very large memory, wireless communication with a wide bandwidth, effective control
algorithms, miniature position indicators using Global Positioning Satellites (GPS), and powerful
software tools including artificial intelligence techniques. Advancements in computers and control
methodologies led to the development of sophisticated robots with a significant expansion of the
capability to emulate biological systems. Autonomous robots were developed and they have
successfully demonstrated their ability to perform many human- and animal-like functions. Such
robots offer superior capabilities to operate in harsh or hazardous environments that are too
dangerous for humans. Progress in intelligent biomimetic robots is expected to impact many aspects
of our lives, especially in performing tasks that are too risky to execute by humans, or too expensive
to employ humans (e.g., operate as movie actors). These robots may also be used in tasks that
combine the advantages of biological creatures in a hybrid form, which are far beyond any known
system or creature, including operating in multiple environments (flying, walking, swimming,
digging, etc.).
This topic has focused on aspects that are related to biology which have inspired artificial
applications and technologies. Many inventions have been based on concepts that have had their
roots in biology. However, since natural inventions are not recorded in a form that one can identify
in engineering terms, the inventions that were produced by humans may have been coincidently
similar, subconsciously inspired, or their origin in nature may not have been well documented. In
this chapter, the author makes an attempt to summarize the current status of biomimetics, its
challenges, and its outlook for the future.
20.2
BIOLOGY AS A MODEL
Nature has an enormous pool of inventions that passed the harsh test of practicality and durability in
a changing environment. In order to harness the most from nature's inventions it is critical to bridge
the gap between the fields of biology and engineering. This bridging effort can be a key to turning
nature's inventions into engineering capabilities, tools, and mechanisms. In order to approach
nature in engineering terms it is necessary to sort biological capabilities along technological
categories using a top-down structure or vice versa. Namely, one can take each aspect of the
biologically identified characteristics and seek an analogy in terms of an artificial technology.
The emergence of nano-technologies, miniature, highly capable and fast microprocessors, effective
power storage, large compact and fast access memory, wireless communication and so on
are making the mimicking of nature capabilities significantly more feasible. One reason for this
is both natural and artificial structures depend on the same fundamental units of atoms and
molecules. Generally, biological terms can be examined and documented analogously to engineer-
ing categories as shown in Table 20.1.
Some of nature's capabilities can inspire new mechanisms, devices, and robots. Examples
include the beaver's engineering capability to build dams, and the woodpecker's ability to impact
wood while suppressing the effect from damaging its brain. Another inspiring capability is the
ability of numerous creatures to operate with multiple mobility options including flying, digging,
swimming, walking, hopping, running, climbing, and crawling. Increasingly, biologically inspired
capabilities are becoming practical including collision avoidance using whiskers or sonars,
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