What does the future hold for nature inspired research?
How rapidly is the subject of biomimetics expanding?
From a relatively small field of tens of papers in the mid-1990s, biomimetics has exponentially expanded thereafter to now reach nearly 3000 papers per year.Growth of biomimetic research
What subjects does biomimetics encompass?
The results of this analysis are displayed in a word cloud of frequent terms in biomimetic research.Popular topics in biomimetics
Are there distinct research communities within biomimetics?
This question was addressed with techniques from network theory applied to a graph of frequent biomimetic topics linked given by common pairings within the titles of papers. Terms that are strongly connected can then be pulled together on the graph, while disparate topics are pushed apart.Connectedness of popular terms in biomimetics
- Robotics and control – general robotics and control, not specifically bioinspired or bio-related (shown in blue)
- Ethology-based robotics – robotics based on the study of animal behaviour (shown in black)
- Biomimetic actuators – synthetic actuators that mimic biological actuators, such as muscle (shown in yellow)
- Biomaterials science – materials and processes associated particularly with biology, such as tissue or adhesion etc. (shown in red)
- Structural bioengineering – structures and movements associated particularly with biology, e.g. wing or flapping (shown in green)
Conclusions
Biomimetics is a research field that is achieving particular prominence through a wide variety of new discoveries in biology and engineering.There has been a rapid expansion of publications on biomimetics from the mid-1990s to present day, doubling every 2–3 years to now reach a mature field of nearly 3000 papers per year. Furthermore, the field is still expanding, and so more growth can be expected. There are a number of distinct themes into which biomimetics can be partitioned; robotics and control, ethology-based robotics, biomimetic actuators, and biomaterials science and structural bioengineering. Taken together, these findings indicate that biomimetics is becoming a dominant paradigm for robotics, materials science and other technological disciplines, with the potential for significant scientific, societal and economic impact over this decade and into the future.Adapted from: Lepora, N. F., Verschure, P., and Prescott, T. J. (2013) The state of the art in biomimetics. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 8(1). © IOP Publishing. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.Our purpose is to transform access to education.
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