Abstract
Biological systems have evolved over billions of years and cope with changing conditions through the adaptation of morphology, physiology, or behavior. Learning from these adaptations can inspire engineering innovation. Several bio-inspired design tools and methods prescribe the use of analogies, but lack details for the identification and application of promising analogies. Further, inexperienced designers tend to have a more difficult time recognizing or creating analogies from biological systems. This paper reviews biomimicry literature to establish analogy categories as a tool for knowledge transfer between biology and engineering to aid bio-inspired design that addresses the common issues. Two studies were performed with the analogy categories. A study of commercialized products verifies the set of categories, while a controlled design study demonstrates the utility of the categories. The results of both studies offer valuable information and insights into the complexity of analogical reasoning and transfer, as well as what leads to biological inspiration versus imitation. The influence on bio-inspired design pedagogy is also discussed. The breadth of the analogy categories is sufficient to capture the knowledge transferred from biology to engineering for bio-inspired design. The analogy categories are a design method independent tool and are applicable for professional product design, research, and teaching purposes.
Highlights
To create novel engineering solutions, a designer applies engineering principles as well as creative thought and intuition
This study demonstrates that the breadth of the analogy categories is sufficient to capture the knowledge transferred by analogy to a new target needed for bio-inspired design
A diverse set of analogies from the domain of biology as well as from a single biological system have been used to aid in solving technical problems
Summary
To create novel engineering solutions, a designer applies engineering principles as well as creative thought and intuition. Analogical reasoning is commonly used in engineering design to provide a means for understanding new or abstract concepts by pointing out similarities to a known concept, such as using the analogy of building a brick wall to describe layering in 3-D printing [1]. Biological systems can provide engineering design inspiration [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Evolution has refined biological systems through billions of years of evolution and adaptation that can inspire innovative engineering solutions (e.g., self-heating and cooling buildings, Velcro©, digital displays viewable in bright sunlight, etc.).
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