Bio-inspired Innovation

Today we are looking at the evolving world of bio-inspired innovation: the analysis and systematic transfer of biological insights into technical applications. Our guests are all exploring biological solutions at the interface between living nature and technology.

Industrial Technologies

Spotify Apple Podcasts EC Audiovisual Service Podcasts Google Podcasts

Insights and ideas

100 000 starlings move in unison against an autumn sky – not one collides; fireflies light up a wood in Borneo flashing in perfect synchronicity; bacteria communicate around a plant’s roots once the population reaches a certain number while, up in the air, the wings of an eastern amberwing dragonfly have 3 000 sensory neurons, including flow sensors to prevent a stall.

What can we learn from these marvels? Nature has a vast array of biological solutions, and some of those that may inspire future trends are set out in a recently published paper in the journal ‘Frontiers in Physics’. How are our three guests exploring the fascinating world of bio-inspired innovation?

Currently at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Nico Bruns leads the Sustainable Functional Polymers Research Group. The team is using bio-inspired approaches to design, engineer and develop materials, and nano-systems, with unprecedented new functions. Nico is particularly interested in the properties of the polymer composites making up plant cuticles, which he explored during the Horizon 2020 project, PlaMatSu. Massimo Trotta is based at the Italian National Research Council, in Bari. He has always been interested in photosynthesis; more recently, the environmental applications of photosynthetic organisms have attracted his attention. Massimo, who coordinated the HyPhOE project, is also involved in popularising science for a non-specialised audience.

Lucia Beccai is a senior researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, and the head of the Soft Bio Robotics Perception Lab. She is interested in tactile sensing for soft robotics and versatile grasping and is particularly focused on what we can learn from elephant trunks, work which was partially funded under the EU’s PROBOSCIS project.

Happy to hear from you!

If you have any feedback, we’re always happy to hear from you! Send us any comments, questions or suggestions (but hopefully never a complaint!) to the usual email address, [e-mail].

Keywords

CORDIScovery, CORDIS, PlaMatSu, HyPhOE, PROBOSCIS, bio-inspired, innovation, solutions, robotics, plants, polymer composites, photosynthesis, tactile sensing, soft robotics