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Chapter 8
Biomimicry: Exploring Research,
Challenges, Gaps, and Tools

Sunil Sharma and Prabir Sarkar

Abstract Many terms like ‘biomimesis’, ‘biomimicry,’ ‘bionics,’ ‘biognosis,’

‘biologically inspired design’ and similar phrases have been used interchangeably
in the past for describing the transfer of biological knowledge from nature to
develop products and processes. Previously, inspiration was taken from nature
without any design methodology. Today, researchers have developed various
bioinspired design methodologies. Over the last two decades, there has been an
immense explosion in research and applications within many fields based on bio-
mimicry. We collect, cluster, and present research data on biomimicry till date. In
spite of biomimicry being a scattered field, we also categorize the applications of
biomimicry in different. We also discuss some of the tools of biomimicry. Various
gaps and challenges existing in biomimicry have also been discussed.

8.1 Introduction

Otto Schmitt coined the term ‘Biomimetics’ in 1957 while inventing a physical
device that imitated the electrical action of a nerve. Another term, ‘bionics’ [2]
appeared in 1960 and ‘biomimicry,’ created in 1982, was published by Janine Benyus
in 1997. Later, yet another analogous term that has been created is ‘Bioinspiration’
[3]. The distinction between all these terms sometimes is not crisp, and there could be
overlapping. Over the years the definitions have been refined by researchers and a
clear distinction has been made by Wanieck et al. [4]. Figure 8.1, shows the Venn
diagram developed based on the various definitions of biomimicry [12].

S. Sharma (&)
P. Sarkar

Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Rupnagar, India
e-mail: sunil.sharma@iitrpr.ac.in
P. Sarkar
e-mail: prabir@iitrpr.ac.in
S. Sharma
Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, India

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 87

A. Chakrabarti (ed.), Research into Design for a Connected World,
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies 134,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5974-3_8
88 S. Sharma and P. Sarkar

Fig. 8.1 A Venn diagram showing different definitions

8.2 Methodology and Research Design

Over the last two decades, there has been an immense explosion in research and
applications within many fields based on biomimicry. For instance, Biomimicry has
been extensively used in mathematics (e.g., genetic algorithm, swarm intelligence
modeling), engineering (e.g., robotics, cars, train), material science, medical,
architecture and even in arts. This paper presents the following works: (1) An
analysis of the research done till date in the field of biomimicry using Web of
Science (2) A description of common tools used in bioinspired design method-
ologies (3) Applications of biomimicry in different fields (4) Various gaps and
challenges existing in biomimetics. Biomimetics, in particular, has been responsible
for the development of novel technologies by taking inspiration from nature. Many
new technologies and adaptions inspired from nature are already developed. In
2013, Lepora et al. [5] reported that in biomimetics, there has been a rapid increase
in the research from 1995 to 2011. They deduced that bioinspired products are
doubling every year, and the number of research publications is doubling every
2–3 years.

8.2.1 Methodology

For this research, the database selected is Thomson Reuters® web of knowledge.
Earlier the review has been done only till 2011. This analysis provides the bio-
mimetic research publication from 1995 to May 2018. Due to the growing interest
in this area, multiple terms are being used synonymously. Thus, the keywords or
search terms used for this research are biomimicry, biologically inspired design,
biomimetic, bioinspiration, nature-inspired, and learn from nature. Though the
8 Biomimicry: Exploring Research, Challenges, Gaps, and Tools 89

Table 8.1 Keywords, variants and individual search results

Sr. No. Keyword Individual search results
Keyword 1 Biomimicry 682
Keyword 2 Variant 1: Biologically inspired design 144
Variant 2: Bioinspired design 195
Variant 3: Bioinspired design 188
Keyword 3 Biomimetic 22,381
Keyword 4 Variant 1: Bioinspiration 211
Variant 2: Bioinspiration 209
Keyword 5 Nature-inspired 1934
Keyword 6 Variant 1: Learn from nature 47
Variant 2: Learning from nature 86

meaning of most of these terms has been defined in the introduction, the inter-
changeable use of these terms often causes confusion to the readers. Six keywords
are identified for finding the literature (see Table 8.1).

8.2.2 Research Design

A schematic process is used to get the required output as shown in Fig. 8.2.
Step 1: The research was initiated with finding a database that publishes research
for biomimicry. The commonly used tools are J-Gate, Sci finder, IEEE Xplore,
Elsevier’s Scopus, and the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge. For this research,
web of knowledge database is selected. This database is that it is one of the most
comprehensive academic databases, which contains research from various disci-
plines. The search was limited to research and proceedings papers published in the
English language during the twenty–three-year period between 1995 and 2018.
Step 2: Next, additional research is conducted using the frequently used synony-
mous biomimicry keywords. Since, these keywords are used interchangeably; using
these keywords and their variations, web of knowledge is searched with the help of
a query in advanced search. It can be inferred that by far the term biomimetic is
most commonly used followed by nature-inspired.
Step 3: In Table 8.1, the individual search results are presented. The query asked in
web of knowledge database resulted in 26,077 entries. However, while searching

Fig. 8.2 A four step process flow diagram [6]

90 S. Sharma and P. Sarkar

3000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Research articles Conference paper

Fig. 8.3 Growth of research in biomimicry

database with different keywords, there is an overlap of entries as multiple key-

words and their variants are used in the query. Another search is conducted using a
combination of two, three, four, five, and six keywords. No entry appeared when
four, five and six keywords are combined with the exception of single entry when
using four keywords. A total of 525 papers are repeated with two, three, four, five,
or six keywords.
Step 4: After cleaning the data, analysis of results is done. Figure 8.3 shows the
growth of research journal papers and proceedings paper as per the Web of the
Knowledge database (Fig. 8.4).
Figure 8.5, shows the leading research institutes. Biomimicry is being used in
different fields. However, from a designer’s point of interest, it is important to
understand that the design part is considered. It is observed that most applications
of bioinspired design are in the field of engineering.

Fig. 8.4 Prominent research Research areas in biomimicry

disciplines in biomimicry Chemistry
4% 4% Materials science

6% Engineering
27%
7% Science Technology other
topics
Physics
10%
Computer science

18% 24% Polymer science

Biochemistry molecular biology

8 Biomimicry: Exploring Research, Challenges, Gaps, and Tools 91

Fig. 8.5 Leading research by Organization's research contribution

various organizations Chinese Academy of Sciences
Centre National dela Recherche
6% Scientifique
University of California System
6%
21%
6% Max Planck Society
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6%
United States Department of Energy DOE
7%
17% Harvard University
7% Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche CNR
8% Jilin University
16%
Indian Institute of Technology IIT

8.2.3 Applications of Biomimicry

Many researchers are taking inspirations from biomimicry in emerging fields.

Currently, biomimicry is being used in the following fields [8] (see Fig. 8.6).
(1) Materials: Material development is one of the largest areas of biomimicry
applications. Bioinspired materials development includes developing smart
materials, surface modifications, novel structural shapes, and enhancing exist-
ing parameters.

Fig. 8.6 Applications of biomimicry in different fields

92 S. Sharma and P. Sarkar

(2) Robotics: The applications in robotics are inspired by animal’s locomotion.

Improvement in movement kinetics will be helpful in man-made moving
vehicles operating in the air (micro-airplanes with wings), water (swimming
robots), and on the ground (small hexapodal robots).
(3) Energy: Some of the applications are turbines placement inspired by a school
of swimming fish, drag reducing patterns from a shark that conserve energy and
energy management software reducing energy consumption at peak hours.
(4) Architecture: Self-cooling buildings, e.g., Eastgate center, Harare is inspired
by the self-cooling mounds of African termites. Seasonal flooding can also be
controlled.
(5) Transportation: Application of kingfisher to train, bee-inspired algorithms can
be used for taking most efficient routes. Crash avoidance systems and traffic
management systems are also being researched in transportation.
(6) Agriculture: Introduction of polyculture, or a mix of plants on agricultural land
by taking inspiration from prairie fields for improved soil integrity and health.
Inspiration was taken from Namibian beetle to collect dew as water in arid
regions.
(7) Sensors and Communication: The applications of bioinspired sensors can be
as remote sensors, embedded sensors, and distributed sensing. Communication
via chemical signals can be used in such as in tunnels, in pipelines or under-
water. Underwater communication system has also been modeled on the
mimicking the dolphin communication [7].

8.2.4 Biomimetic Methodology

Researchers agree that biomimicry itself is a trans and interdisciplinary process [4].
If a systematic transfer of biological knowledge to technology is possible, then it
will facilitate the biomimetic process. Many researchers have developed a biomi-
metic design process to solve problems specifically related to engineering. Nagel
et al. [9] describes two concept generation approaches created to enable systematic
conceptual design of biologically inspired engineering solutions. Helms et al. [10]
describe the problem-driven and solution-driven the bioinspired design process.
Rowland [11] also describes the bioinspired design process. Most of the researchers
have described these processes with relevant live projects using the methodology to
develop the projects. Janine Benyus, Biomimicry Institute has already developed a
methodology which is used by interdisciplinary teams to solve the human problems.
Wanieck et al. [4] has suggested a problem-driven bioinspired design process. All
of the bioinspired design processes use tools to support the complete process. Some
of the tools need extensive learning while other tools are quite simple and com-
putational in nature.
8 Biomimicry: Exploring Research, Challenges, Gaps, and Tools 93

8.2.5 Tools and Methods

Many tools are have been developed by researchers for supporting the biomimetic
design process. We hereby discuss some of these commonly used tools and
methods in the bioinspired design process.
1. BidLab search tool—A natural language analysis tool for bioinspired design to
find potential sources of natural inspiration for a design problem. This tool
includes WordNet, a lexical database for English language [13].
2. IDEA-INSPIRE—IDEA-INSPIRE [29] is one of the computer-based tools that
allow users to interactively search and explore customized databases of bio-
logical and engineering systems. The sources of inspiration suggested by
IDEA-INSPIRE contain text, diagrams, audio, and video.
3. BioTRIZ—Vincent [24] developed BioTRIZ, a tool used by designers to
abstract useful design information from biological systems. The problem is
reformulated into contradiction and a list of biological systems is generated.
This leads the designer to specific sources of biological inspiration [24].
4. Functional modeling—Using a functional model to describe a biological sys-
tem allows designers to explore the system at a functional level [27].
5. Systematic reverse engineering of biological systems—Method for the transfer
of technology from the biological domain to the engineering design domain
(Fig. 8.7).
6. Natural language analysis—A bridging method to algorithmically generate a
relevant keywords using natural language analysis.

Fig. 8.7 Bioinspired design process, types and some biomimetic tools (Adapted from [12])
94 S. Sharma and P. Sarkar

7. Biologically meaningful keywords—A retrieval algorithm to identify potential

biologically meaningful keywords that are more effective in searching bio-
logical text than corresponding engineering keywords [26].
8. Ontology for bioinspired design—Biological information is structured using
ontologies that relate design functions to biological systems and strategies [27].
9. AskNature—It is an online database of biological solutions indexed by functions
and built by The Biomimicry Institute. All the records in the Asknature database
are classified using the taxonomy making an effective search possible [20].
10. Biomimicry Taxonomy—A hierarchy of functions and attributes that provides
the principal classification scheme for AskNature content [28].
11. SAPPhIRE—The causal description language, SAPPhIRE: State-Action-Part-
Phenomenon-Input-oRgan-Effect, has been implemented into the software
called IDEA-INSPIRE that allows browsing of entries or forming searches of
diverse complexity levels [16].
12. Engineering-to-biology thesaurus—A tool that in which biological terms in the
thesaurus are correlated to the engineering domain based on functional basis
lexicon [28].
13. DANE—Design by analogy to Nature Engine (DANE) is another computa-
tional tool developed by Vattam et al. [19] provides access to a design case
library containing structure-behavior-function models of engineering and bio-
logical systems. Search results are presented to users in various multimedia
forms.
14. Four box method—It is a quick-to-use tool that guides users to better represent,
formulate, and evaluate design problems and possible biological passages.
15. T Charts—T-Chart highlights the similarities and differences between the
biological and technological systems.

8.2.6 Research Challenges in Biomimicry

One of the challenges for designers is unfamiliarity with tools and methods which
can be overcome by introductory training. For example, the taxonomy feature of
Asknature needs sufficient training or appropriate selection of keyword while
searching its database. Another challenge is where to look for biological models to
abstract ideas. This can be overcome by retrieving online information, free
resources (AskNature.org), and reserved databases (IDEA-INSPIRE, DANE).
Another challenge is to capture meaningful information from biological entities.
This can be achieved by correct analogy selection and correct transfer. For example,
water can be transported to a higher height by multiple phenomenons (evaporation,
osmosis, surface tension) and each phenomenon is exhibited in nature by multiple
entities. The cross-discipline knowledge transfer is also difficult as most
designers typically are novices in biology. This challenge can be overcome by
knowledge of basic biology and its terms. For example, mutation, abscission, etc.,
8 Biomimicry: Exploring Research, Challenges, Gaps, and Tools 95

are biology-specific terms. If multiple entities can be source of inspiration, selecting

best one of them to solve the problem is also challenging. This can be supported by
well-defined problem, correct analogy and well-defined selection criteria. For
example, a self-cleaning surface can be plant, animal (sea), waterbody-based, etc.
Another challenge is to make bioinspired design scalable and repeatable. This can
be achieved by a streamlined process supported by methods and tools as many
adaptations of bioinspired design are available.
There is a lack of appropriate documentation to understand the best practices of
successful applications in biomimicry. Detailed case studies can be useful in this
regard. As multiple design theories are available, researchers can standardize certain
theories by common agreement. Useful knowledge can be extracted when greater
numbers of designers use it often in general. Many researchers have taken up
another challenge to educate the would-be-designers biologically inspired design
process. This can also lead to the development of computational tools and methods.

8.2.7 Research Gaps in Biomimicry

One of the gaps exists among designers due to their unfamiliarity with biology.
Some amount of introductory training can fill this gap. For example, the taxonomy
feature of AskNature needs sufficient training or appropriate selection of keyword
while a knowledge gap also exists as the bioinspired repositories are thinly popu-
lated. Transition gaps are evident when transitioning from design requirement to
ideas using biomimicry, biomimicry to technology and technology to marketable
products. In the past researchers experienced transitions gaps such as access to
biological knowledge which was not readily available to designers. There are other
transition gaps such as mapping the analogies and abstraction of biological systems
as designers do not need complete models but only certain part of inspiration from
natural entities. A clear-cut methodology for analogical transfer based on multi-
modal representation is needed. Since using different entities multiple analogies can
be generated then how to eliminate redundant analogies in knowledge representa-
tion? Which mode of knowledge representation is most significant for analogical
transfer? If same analogies can solve a problem, is there a logical reasoning system
for verifying which analogy can work best? A gap also exists in the final stage as,
how to understand the appropriate application of knowledge, how these bioinspi-
ration can be implemented in products and what should be the commercialization
strategies for such products as these products may be sustainable. Though many
tools have been developed in the past they are not organized so as to aid designers
throughout the entire development process. The phenomenon of design fixation is
known in engineering design but its effect in bioinspired design has not been
explored. Lastly, for education purpose, what can be possible course contents to
teach a biomimicry course and what tools can an expert designer use to pass on the
knowledge successfully?
96 S. Sharma and P. Sarkar

8.2.8 Conclusion

First, this research clarifies the underlining distinction among various similar words
by which ‘biomimicry’ is being referred. It can be concluded that researchers often
use these terms interchangeably. The most commonly used word is ‘biomimetic.’
The literature analysis concludes that the numbers of publications in this field are
increasing every year. The proceedings, however, seem to be stagnant for last 2–
3 years. This steep rise could be clearly observed in research papers. We observed
that chemistry, materials, and engineering are the fields where most of the research
is going on, and most of this research is conducted in China, France, and the US.
We also categorize the applications of biomimicry as per the different disci-
plines. A comparison of some tools used in biomimicry has also been done. Various
research gaps and challenges have been discussed in this research. A new designer
will ask where to look for bioinspiration? Biological databases and multimodal
knowledge representation tools can be useful but currently, they are thinly popu-
lated. Knowledge transfer methods can be used to support bioinspired design
process. Selection of analogies and their extraction can ensure right analogies at
used right place in conceptual design. A bioinspired design can be novel and can
have a green impact on environment. These challenges and gaps may provide many
short-term- and long-term opportunities to explore which would help to understand
and support biomimicry.

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