Abstracting biology for engineering design Online publication date: Tue, 30-Sep-2014
by Jacquelyn K.S. Nagel, Robert L. Nagel, Robert B. Stone
International Journal of Design Engineering (IJDE), Vol. 4, No. 1, 2011
Abstract: The natural world provides numerous cases for analogy and inspiration in engineering design. Biological organisms, phenomena and strategies provide insight into sustainable and adaptable design and offer engineers billions of years of valuable experience, which can be used to inspire engineering innovation. This research presents an approach that may be used for repeatable functional model generation of biological organisms at multiple levels of abstraction, and discusses how biological functional models afford designers a systematic approach to biology-inspired design. The functional model representation translates the biological information into an engineering context enabling engineering designers with varying biological knowledge, but a common understanding of engineering design methods, to utilise biology for design inspiration. Thus, the biological information is accessible to designers. An example of lichen is provided to illustrate the multiple levels of abstraction of biological functional models.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Design Engineering (IJDE):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook