W12L2 bioinspiration

Question 1

Bio inspiration example: series 500 Shinkansen

Answer 1

Design issue: a loud bang occurred when
the train entered a tunnel – due to the sudden increase in air-pressure from the entering train
Biological solution: kingfishers must
similarly travel from air (low pressure) to
water (high pressure) to catch fish. The shape of the beak and head allows it to glide through the air and dive precisely into the water (without pushing its beak back into its head).
-The nose of the train mimics the kingfisher beak – no noise and 15% more efficient

Question 2

Bioinspiration: efficient fins

Answer 2

Design issue: how to improve efficiency of wind turbines
Biological solution: humpback whales have bumpy tubercule fins that provide greater propulsion efficiency. Adding tubercules to fan blades reduce drag and improve lift – biomimetic blades help generate similar power at 10mph that conventional turbines generate at 17mph

Question 3

Bio inspiration: termite mound

Answer 3

-For termites, maitaining a constant temperature is important
-Thermal images of the mound reveal an inversion of the difference between flute and nook surface temperature.
-building based on the structure of mound flutes

Question 4

Applying engineer: chemical sensors

Answer 4

-scale found on moth antennae, are thought to protect the sensilla
-modeling show that scale improve the capturing of pheromone molecule
-work to see how we can apply this to detect chemical

Question 5

Case study: coating

Answer 5

-Sahara silver ant forage under extreme temperature condition in the Africa desert
-Hair reflect infrared energy and keep the ant cool
- deconstructing beetles, how it reflect infrared energy with coating (two layer of reflective structure and pigment based filter )
-use these as inspiration to make paint that reflect infrared light and cool the item coated

Question 6

problem in bioinspired design

Answer 6

-we are yet to take advantage of biodiversity in bioinspired design
-For example, all bioinspired design on gecko only look at one species or did not list the name out of 1500 species
-Comparing species should also be taken into consideration

Question 7

Case study: genetic algorithms

Answer 7

• the process of identifying the most optimal form
• using a search algorithm based on how natural selection would work

Question 8

How does genetic algorithm work

Answer 8

-Create a random population of individual
-evaluate the individual based on a specific performance
-selec the best individual for the criteria and perform cross over
—add a define set of random genetic mutation and repeat

Question 9

The adaptive landscape

Answer 9

-A adaptation to a particular environment can come form multiple trait
-one trait will be higer than other but it can be hard to reach as an organism can be “stuck” on a local peak
-the solution we see might not be the most optimal
-this is why cross over should be consider so convergence can be achieved for the final design