Bio Inspirations

3M’s Shark Skin Inspired Film To Help Wind Turbines

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

Earlier this year, scientists offered a novel approach to boost the output of electric wind turbines: Coat the blades with a ribbed film that mimics shark skin. View More...

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Catepillar Inspired Robot

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Rolling locomotion using an external force such as gravity has evolved many times. However, some caterpillars can curl into a wheel and generate their own rolling momentum as part of an escape repertoire. View More...

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Sycamore Inspired Wind Turbines

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

The giant sycamore of the seas: British engineers design 900ft offshore wind turbine which mimics tree's seeds. A giant wind turbine design that mimics the spiralling motion of a sycamore seed could revolutionise the wind power industry.

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Tags: sycamore seed, turbine, wind
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Beetle Inspired Video Cameras

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Video cameras on your cellphone could soon be good enough to record a jazz concert, a nighttime street scene, or a candlelit dinner. A Swedish start-up has created an algorithm, inspired by dung beetles, that can be integrated into camera modules to offer high-quality video in extremely low light situations. View More...

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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...