Posted on June 22nd, 2011 by axb
Have you ever wondered what air travel might look like in the year 2050? Aircraft manufacturers at Airbus have, and to them the future looks exceedingly bright (and comfortable).
Their new Concept Cabin, a futuristic design created for the 49th biennial Paris Air Show, features a transparent roof that can adjust its opacity, giving passengers a panoramic view of the skies. The streamlined web that supports this canopy will be made of a lightweight titanium modeled after bird bones. Airbus engineers even predict that much of the cabin will be able to be 3D printed.
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Filed under: Aerospace, Transportation, e-News | 11 Comments »
Tags: Aeronautics, Aerospace, Biomimicry, Transportation
Posted on May 4th, 2011 by jxh
After closely studying the biomechanics of
cats, dogs, and
jellyfish, engineers are turning their attention to more bothersome critters:
fire ants.Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology examined the notoriously feisty ants more closely and discovered that the hairy surface of their rough skin makes it difficult for water to penetrate, much as duck feathers repel water because of their tiny bumps. Their work could lead to the development of new and better waterproof materials.
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Filed under: Materials, e-News | 1 Comment »
Tags: Biomimicry, Materials, Robotics
Posted on February 28th, 2011 by jxh
Biomimicry is back!
By studying lizards, a team of researchers has created a snake-like robot that can move through sand. The new robot is the most detailed model of an organism moving through an environment that is not water or air.
The Georgia Institute of Technology researchers studied the sandfish lizard, which is able to burrow into sand to avoid predators or escape the desert’s heat.
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Filed under: Electrical, Mechanical, e-News | 5 Comments »
Tags: Biomimicry, Electrical, Robotics, Space
Posted on December 3rd, 2010 by axb
The shortfin mako shark, one of the ocean’s swiftest predators
Biomimicry seems to be popping up all over the news recently, and this week is no exception. While John Dabiri is busy modelling the complex mechanics of jellyfish, another engineer has taken on the study of a different, more dangerous resident of the ocean: sharks.
The shortfin mako shark is known as the “cheetah of the ocean” for its ability to accelerate rapidly and to reach speeds of around 30 miles per hour in the water. One mako shark has even clocked in at over 45 miles per hour (the world’s fastest human sprinters swim at about 5mph)!
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Filed under: Aerospace, Mechanical, e-News | Comment »
Tags: Aerospace, Biomimicry, Mechanical
Posted on November 23rd, 2010 by axb
How do cats drink? Is the “wet dog shake” an effective drying mechanism? These may have fleetingly crossed your mind, but it took an engineer to get to the bottom of such creature curiosities.
The ability of felines to lap up an entire bowl of liquid may seem to defy gravity. But four engineers at MIT, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and Princeton have proven that it’s not so. Their study was inspired by observing one of their cats, Cutta Cutta.
The team used high-speed photography to capture and analyze the mysterious cat lap’s fluid dynamics. Since a cat’s tongue is not large enough to create a ladle that can “scoop” water into its mouth, kitties lightly touch the tip of their tongue to the surface of the water, and then quickly dart it back, drawing a column of liquid into their mouths.
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Filed under: Explore Engineering, Mechanical, e-News | 4 Comments »
Tags: Biomimicry, Mechanical
