Bionics: Nature as an ingenious engineer and designer

How is a water spider able to swim and dive without getting wet? This is one of the questions which the modern discipline of bionics tries to answer. The aim of bionics specialists is to translate nature’s solutions into human technology, for there is no doubt that nature is the best engineer and most ingenious designer of all.

The comparatively recent research area of bionics is actually an inter-disciplinary subject which combines engineering science, architecture and mathematics. The basic principle is to make nature’s ideas and problem solutions, which have stood the test of time over millions of years of evolution, usable for man.

The term bionics was coined by an American air force officer in 1958, but the world’s first student of bionics was the Italian Leonardo da Vinci. No less than 500 years ago, this ingenious all-rounder studied the flight of birds and designed a flying machine according to his findings. He also derived the principle of the helicopter from what he observed in nature. Later it was the turn of Otto Lilienthal to triumph with his "flying apparatus", which he had designed after careful study of the stork’s wing structure.

Fish are also very interesting objects of study for bionic specialists. For example, the nose of the dolphin is the model for a pear-shaped bow protuberance which enables ships to cross the oceans of the world with less water resistance and therefore a lower fuel consumption. And Airbus engineers have copied the rough skin of the shark to develop a striated foil coating for the wings of aircraft. The result is up to six percent less friction and considerable savings in aviation fuel.

Self-cleaning surfaces are based on the example of lotus leaves, highly resistant metallic foams are derived from the bone structure and the latest, self-sharpening cutting tools copy the principle of rodent teeth. Nature even provides ingenious solutions for day-to-day things such as the Velcro fastener.

Nature is also a model of sustainability

Bionics research does not mean copying nature. The aim is rather to understand its principles and use them as a stimulus for innovations. The inventions of nature, which have been developed and continuously improved over millions of years, provide an inexhaustible reservoir of ideas and inspirations from which not only technology can benefit. More than ever before, bionics can also further the cause of environmental protection. Many of the innovative concepts which engineers and scientists are adopting from nature correspond to the principle of sustainability. Nature always achieves its objectives economically, with the minimum energy, conserves its resources and completely recycles its waste – an example which is well worth following.