Nature-Inspired Travel An octopus has the ability to whoosh away from predators so fast it seems to disappear The amazing eight-armed mollusk does it by fleeing head-first Water goes into the octopus’s body called the mantle Muscles constrict to close the mantle squirting water back through a tubular opening called a funnel The octopus can move the funnel around to steer its hasty retreat funnel mantle 4
An octopus’s amazing flight tricks inspired a new kind of propulsion system for watercraft Researchers built a system using four plastic balls that suck in water and push it back out The new device is a quiet and fish-friendly alternative to a ship propeller The Octopus Siphon Actuator has four joined elastomer balls each containing a hydraulic piston Water is sucked in then quickly expelled 5
Biomimicry also called biomimetics involves the study of how functions are delivered in biology then translating those functions into designs that suit human needs Architects scientists and engineers involved in biomimicry have recognized that nature is the world’s largest science and engineering lab Over 300 million years of evolution have given dragonflies the ability to quickly fly in six different directions a feat that biomimicry engineers are very interested in 6
Nature has 3 8 billion years of experience Using nature as inspiration and guide biomimics research experiment with and create innovative designs that help solve human problems Studying how nature travels and communicates has inspired many new designs in both transportation and communication Students in the third Biomimicry Student Design Challenge came up with transportation innovations inspired by nature One of the winning designs was a human-powered human-powered vehicle that mimicked the movements of millipedes and snakes 7
