Even more innovation inspired by nature! (The previous three: Natural inspiration 1, Natural inspiration 2, and Natural inspiration 3.)
Water from a shorebird’s beak
Based on the beaks of shorebirds, engineers at the University of Texas at Arlington have designed a fog-harvesting system that can capture fog and produce water droplets to be channelled into a storage system.
By opening and closing their hinged beaks, shorebirds filter out water to capture prey. To imitate shorebirds, the prototype system consists of two glass plates hinged together. These plates open and close like the beak of a shorebird. Fog travels over the plates, condensation forms, and the droplets are captured in a storage system.
According to the scientists, the prototype can be scaled up to collect water anywhere where fog is common.
Image: Semipalmated Sandpiper—Coburg, Ontario, Canada. August 2006. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Calidris-pusilla-001.jpg
Sources
Heng, X & Luo, C. (2014). Bioinspired plate-based fog collectors. Applied Materials & Interfaces, 6(18). 16257-16266. Available from http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/am504457f. DOI: 10.1021/am504457f
Spanne, A. (2015, June 18). 5 Cool tech innovations ‘bioinspired’ by animals. Mental_floss. Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/article/65181/5-cool-tech-innovations-bioinspired-animals.
News Center. (2014, September). Shorebird’s beak inspires UT Arlington research on water collection. University of Texas at Arlington. Retrieved from http://www.uta.edu/news/releases/2014/09/birdbeak-water-luo.php
Slither like a snake
Scientists have long experimented with robotic snakes that are capable of slithering through hard-to-access places. The sideways slither of a rattlesnake has now prompted them to explore how the snakes move their muscles to navigate less solid terrain.
The snake moves simultaneously in vertical and horizontal waves, and by changing the phase and amplitude of the waves, and changing direction by altering the horizontal wave while keeping the vertical wave constant, the snakes are exceptional manoeuvrable.
The researchers are working to improve the robotic snakes so that they can make quick, sharp turns and slither easily up hills of sand.
Image: The robotic snake. Carnegie Mellon
Sources
Astley, H.C., Gong, C., Dai, J., et al. (2015, May 12). Modulation of orthogonal body waves enables high maneuverability in sidewinding locomotion. Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(19). 6200-6205. Doi: 10.1073/pnas.1418965112. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/112/19/6200.short
Spice, B. (2015, Mar 23). Carnegie Mellon’s snake robots learn to turn by following the lead of real sidewinders. Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2015/march/snake-robots-follow-sidewinders.html
Clean up like a gecko
The sticky pads of a gecko’s feet help them cling to walls. The same stickiness can be used to gather ultra-fine dust that is otherwise extremely hard to capture. We’re talking about dust that dull a painting’s colours or cause problems in the electronics and aerospace industries.
The sticky pads consist of microscopic pillars that create an electrostatic charge. This charge is tiny, but strong enough to attract dust particles. Researchers have created sheets of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with pillars that range from 2 to 50 microns in diameter. Unlike a gecko’s foot, these sheets do not cling to walls, but can attract microscopic dust particles.
The material works on various surfaces, and does not seem to damage the objects that are being cleaned.
The image to the right demonstrates microscopic silica particles being lifted by micropillars 50 microns in diameter.
Image: Yale University.
Sources
Condliffe, J. (2016, May 03). How a gecko’s foot could help clean your dusty apartment. Gizmodo. Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/how-a-geckos-foot-could-help-clean-your-dusty-apartment-1774410960
Izadi, H., Dogra, N., Perreault, F., Schartz, C., Simon, S., and Vanderlick, T.K. (2016). Removal of particulate contamination from solid surfaces using polymeric micropillars. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 8(26). 16967-16978. DOI: 0.1021/acsami.5b09154. Available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.5b09154
Weir, W. (2016, April 26). In the war against dust, a new tool inspired by geckos. Yale University. Retrieved from http://news.yale.edu/2016/04/26/war-against-dust-new-tool-inspired-geckos
Comments