A Practical Guide to Bio-inspired Design

Bio-inspired design (also called biomimetics or biomimicry) is a promisingapproach for the development of innovative technical products - not only inmechanical engineering, but also in areas such as material science and even computerengineering. Innovations such as humanoid robots or multifunctionalmaterials have shown the potential of bio-inspired design. However, in industrialcompanies, bio-inspired design remains an exotic approach which is rarelyused in innovation practice. One reason for this is a lack of knowledge on how toimplement bio-inspired design in practice. Therefore, this guide book was writtento explain the application of bioinspired design methods and tools. The targetgroups are professional engineers and biologists, as well as students of both disciplines.The book presents a selection of methods for specific activities in bio-inspireddesign, namely: planning a bio-inspired design project, abstraction, search, analysisand comparison, and transfer of analogies. Factsheets give an overview of eachmethod, its advantages and challenges, and its suitability for different bio-inspireddesign approaches and scenarios. To facilitate understanding, all methods areexplained with the help of the same example. In addition, ten best practice examplesshow the practical applicability of bio-inspired design.The AuthorsDr.-Ing. Helena Hashemi Farzaneh is a researcher at the Technical University ofMunich. She studied mechanical engineering and received her PhD studying thecollaboration between engineers and biologists. Her current research focuses onbio-inspired design and its integration into the innovation process.Professor Dr.-Ing. Udo Lindemann is a professor emeritus of the Technical Universityof Munich. He was formerly head of the Institute of Product Development(1995-2016). Udo Lindemann is active on several advisory boards, the NationalAcademy of Science and Engineering, and is part of the Bavarian Industry AssociationFuture council. For his outstanding achievements, he received the honorarytitle of TUM Emeritus of Excellence.