Bio Inspirations

Shark Inspired Coatings

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Shark Skin Inspired Coating
University of Florida engineers have developed an environmentally friendly coating for hulls of oceangoing ships based on an unlikely source of inspiration: the shark View More...

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Hummingbird inspired Nano-UAV

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

Hummingbird inspired micro aerial vehicle
(image source: Aerovironment)
"AeroVironment is designing and building a prototype flapping-wing unmanned aircraft under View More...

Tags: flapping wings, hummingbird, mav, micro aerial vehicle, nano, ornithopter, uav, unmanned aerial vehicle
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Maple Seeds and Animals Exploit the Same Trick to Fly

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

maple_seed2
(image source: wikipedia)
The twirling seeds of maple trees spin like miniature helicopters as they fall to the ground. Because the seeds descend slowly as they swirl, they can View More...

Tags: aerodynamics, biomimicry, maple seed, wing
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Plant Inspired Heliotropic Solar Tracker

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

Many plants are heliotropic, gradually tilting towards the sun to optimize solar energy capture. Current sun-tracking solar panels involve the use of motors View More...

Tags: biomimicry, heliotropic, leaf, plant, solar, sun tracker
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Tuna Inspired Tidal Power Systems

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

img_biostreamjpg
The tidal power conversion system, bioSTREAM™, is based on the highly efficient propulsion of Thunniform mode swimming species, such as shark View More...

Tags: biomimicry, biostream, hydro energy, tuna
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Fish Inspired Vortex Induced Vibrations Clean Energy

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

vivace
A novel approach to extract energy from flowing water currents. It is unlike any other ocean energy or low-head hydropower View More...

Tags: shedding, vortex, vortex induced vibration
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Plant inspired solar cells

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

leaf_dyecell
"Plant-inspired solar cells mimic photosynthetic dyes and processes to generate solar energy many times View More...

Tags: bioinspired, biomimetic, biomimicry, dye, leaf, leaves, photosynthesis, solar, solar cells
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Humpback Whale Inspired Air Foils

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

"Tubercle Technology began with WhalePower President, Dr. Frank E. Fish solving one of Nature's mysteries: How was it possible for Humpback Whales to be so astonishingly agile? View More...