Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
robots. These types of robots include the NASA Johnson Space Center robotic astronaut, which is
known as Robonaut.
1.10 CONCLUSIONS
After billions of years of evolution, nature developed inventions that work, which are appropriate
for the intended tasks and that last. The evolution of nature led to the introduction of highly
effective and power efficient biological mechanisms. Failed solutions often led to the extinction of
the specific species that became a fossil. In its evolution, nature archived its solutions in genes of
creatures that make up the terrestrial life around us. Imitating nature's mechanisms offers enormous
potentials for the improvement of our life and the tools we use. Humans have always made efforts to
imitate nature and we are increasingly reaching levels of advancement where it becomes signifi-
cantly easier to mimic biological methods, processes, and systems. Advances in science and
technology are leading to knowledge and capabilities that are multiplying every year. These
improvements lead to capabilities that help understand better and implement nature's principles
in more complex ways. Effectively, we have now significantly better appreciation of nature's
capabilities allowing us to employ, extract, copy, and adapt its inventions.
Benefits from the study of biomimetics can be seen in many applications, including stronger
fiber, multifunctional materials, improved drugs, superior robots, and many others. Another aspect
of biomimetics is to recognize the importance of protecting species from extinction, lest we lose
nature's solutions that have managed to survive, but which we have not yet studied or still do not
understand. Nature offers a model for us as humans in our efforts to address our needs. We can learn
manufacturing techniques from animals and plants such as the use of sunlight and simple com-
pounds to produce with no prolusion, biodegradable fibers, ceramics, plastics, and various chem-
icals. Nature has already provided a model for many human-made devices, processes, and
mechanisms. One can envision the emergence of extremely strong fibers that are woven as the
spider does, and ceramics that are shatterproof emulating the pearl. Besides providing models,
nature can serve as a guide to determine the appropriateness of our innovations in terms of
durability, performance, and compatibility. Biomimetics has many challenges, including the
author's arm-wrestling challenge announced in 1999, which has taken the human muscle as a
baseline for the development of artificial muscles. The challenge is still open even after the
competition held in 2005; however, advances towards making such arms are helping the field of
biomimetic greatly.
Inspirations from nature are expected to continue leading to technology improvements, and the
impact is expected to be felt in every aspect of our lives. Some of the solutions may be considered
science-fiction in today's capability, but as we improve our understanding of nature and develop
better capabilities this may become a reality sooner than we expect.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Research reported in this manuscript was conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
California Institute of Technology, under a contract with National Aeronautics and Space Admin-
istration (NASA). The author would like to thank Babak Amir Parviz, University of Washington,
Seattle, WA, for providing information about his research related to Guided Device-to-Substrate
Self-Assembly. The author appreciates the many helpful suggestions that he received from Julian
FV Vincent, University of Bath, England. The author also appreciates his daughter's (Limor Bar-
Cohen, UCLA) help with extensive editing. Moreover, the author acknowledges the assistance of
Greg Gmurczyk from NASA Headquarters, Washington DC, in identifying experts in the field of
biomimetics.
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