The natural world provides numerous cases for analogy and inspiration in engineering design. From simple cases such as hook and latch attachments to articulated-wing flying vehicles, nature provides many sources for ideas. Though biological systems provide a wealth of elegant and ingenious approaches to problem solving, there are challenges that prevent designers from leveraging the full insight of the biological world on the designed (with synthetic materials and energies) world. A fundamental problem is that the effort and time required to become a competent engineering designer creates significant obstacles to becoming sufficiently knowledgeable about biological systems to effectively execute biomimetic design (and of course, the converse could be said). In this Small Grant for Exploratory Research, we describe how we intend to lay the groundwork to solve the knowledge requirement problem through the creation of methods and knowledge that will enable a prototype biomimetic design repository. The design knowledge will be stored based on the function the biomimetic system solves. The first contribution is the creation of a partial thesaurus that will contain biologically connotative words for Functional Basis terms, thus enabling the search for biomimetic solutions to engineering functions. The second is the discovery of biological phenomena that directly solve engineering functions. The third is the creation of engineering solutions that are analogous to (by using similar strategies), but do not physically mimic biological phenomena. Intellectual Merit If successful, this proposed research would make fundamental contributions to engineering design through the extension of the basic methods of functional modeling and biomimetic design. Key contributions will include representing biological systems as solutions to specific engineering functions, direct knowledge discovery of the similarities and differences between biological and engineered systems as viewed from a functional perspective and the creation of engineered systems that implement strategies or principles of their biological counterparts without reproducing physical biological entities. Broader Impact Though the primary goal of this proposal is to produce results leading to a more comprehensive research proposal, the work proposed here will have immediate and broad impact. If successful, this exploratory work will the demonstrate u the feasibility of developing a language and thesaurus that enable the engineering and biology communities to better collaborate, create and discover. Additionally, the results of this research will provide the groundwork to create a larger function-based biomimetic design repository that, through web access, will have a broad impact on engineering design.
