Knowledge about bionics

Biomimicry

Biomimicry is a science that studies the structure and properties of biological systems and engineering technology to provide new design ideas and working principles.

The term bionics was coined by American John Steele in 1960 based on the Latin word "bios" (meaning way of life) and the suffix "nlc" (meaning "having the properties of...") .

Bionics is a word formed by adding the Greek word bio, which means life, and ics, which means engineering technology. It has only been used since about 1960. The functions of living things are far superior to any artificially manufactured machinery. Biomimicry is a discipline that aims to realize and effectively apply biological functions in engineering. For example, regarding information reception (sensory function), information transmission (nerve function), automatic control system, etc., the structure and function of this organism have given great inspiration in mechanical design. Examples of bionics that can be cited include applying the body shape or skin structure of dolphins (which prevents turbulence on the body surface when swimming) to submarine design principles. Biomimicry is also considered to be a subject closely related to cybernetics, while cybernetics is a subject that mainly compares, studies and explains biological phenomena with mechanical principles.

Flies are spreaders of bacteria, and everyone hates them. However, the fly's wings (also called balance rods) are "natural navigators", and people imitated them to make "vibrating gyroscopes". This kind of instrument has been used in rockets and high-speed aircraft to realize automatic driving. The fly's eye is a "compound eye" composed of more than 3,000 small eyes. People imitate it to make "fly eye lenses". A "fly's eye lens" is made up of hundreds or thousands of small lenses arranged neatly together. Using it as a lens can be used to make a "fly's eye camera", which can take thousands of the same photos at one time. This kind of camera has been used in printing plate making and large-scale reproduction of tiny circuits in electronic computers, greatly improving work efficiency and quality. The "fly's eye lens" is a new type of optical component that has many uses.

What kind of strange abilities do all kinds of creatures in nature have? What inspirations have their various abilities given to humans? By imitating these abilities, what kind of machines can humans create? An emerging science to be introduced here is bionics.

Biomimicry refers to the science of constructing technical devices by imitating living things. It is a new fringe science that only emerged in the middle of the last century. Biomimicry studies the structure, function and working principles of living organisms, and transplants these principles into engineering technology to invent instruments, devices and machines with superior performance and create new technologies. From the birth and development of bionics to the present, its research results have been very impressive. The advent of bionics has opened up a unique technological development path, which is a path to obtain blueprints from the biological world. It has greatly broadened people's horizons and demonstrated extremely strong vitality.

[Edit this paragraph] Human bionics has a long history

Since ancient times, nature has been the source of various human technological ideas, engineering principles and major inventions. A wide variety of living things have gone through a long process of evolution, enabling them to adapt to changes in the environment and thus survive and develop. Labor creates human beings. With their upright body, hands that can work, and language for communicating emotions and thoughts, human beings have promoted the high development of the nervous system, especially the brain, in long-term production practices. Therefore, human beings' unparalleled abilities and intelligence far exceed all groups in the biological world. Human beings use their ingenuity and dexterous hands to make tools through labor, thereby gaining greater freedom in nature. Human wisdom not only stops at observing and understanding the biological world, but also uses humans' unique thinking and design abilities to imitate living things and increase their abilities through creative labor. Fish have the ability to come and go freely in the water, so people imitate the shape of fish to build boats, using wooden paddles to imitate fins. It is said that as early as the period of Dayu, the working people of ancient my country observed fish swimming and turning in the water with the swing of their tails, and they set up wooden oars on the stern of the boat. Through repeated observation, imitation and practice, he gradually changed to oars and rudders, increased the power of the ship, and mastered the means of turning the ship. In this way, people can make ships sail freely even in rough rivers.

Birds can fly freely in the air with their wings spread. According to "Han Feizi", Lu Ban made a bird out of bamboo and wood, and "it flew and stayed there for three days." However, people hope to imitate the wings of birds so that they can fly in the air. As early as more than four hundred years ago, Italian Leonardo da Vinci and his assistants carefully dissected birds, studied their body structures and carefully observed their flight. Designed and built an ornithopter, the world's first man-made flying machine.

The above inventions and attempts to imitate biological structures and functions can be considered the pioneers of human bionics and the bud of bionics.

[Edit this paragraph] Thought-provoking comparison

Although human bionic behavior has long been prototyped, before the 1940s, people did not consciously regard biology as a design idea. and the source of invention. Scientists' research on biology only stops at describing the exquisite structure and perfect functions of living organisms. Engineering and technical personnel rely more on their outstanding wisdom and hard work to make artificial inventions. They rarely consciously learn from the biological world.

However, the following facts can illustrate: some of the technical problems that people encounter have appeared in the biological world millions of years ago and have been solved in the process of evolution. However, humans have not learned from the biological world. Get the enlightenment you deserve.

During World War I, submarines were built out of military necessity to allow ships to sail covertly underwater. When engineers and technicians designed the original submarine, they first loaded the submarine with stones or lead blocks to make it sink. If they needed to rise to the surface, they would throw away the stones or lead blocks and let the boat return to the surface. Come to the water. Later, after improvements, the method of alternately filling and draining pontoons with water was used on submarines to change the weight of the submarine. Later, it was changed to a ballast water tank. A deflation valve was installed on the upper part of the water tank and a water filling valve was installed below. When the water tank was filled with seawater, the weight of the hull increased and it submerged into the water. When an emergency dive is needed, there is also a speed diving chamber. After the boat is submerged in the water, the seawater in the speed diving chamber is discharged. If one part of the ballast tank is filled with water and the other part is empty, the submarine can be semi-submerged. When the submarine wants to float, compressed air is passed into the water tank to discharge the seawater. After the weight of the seawater in the boat is reduced, the submarine can float. Such a superior mechanical device enables the submarine to sink and float freely. But later it was discovered that the sinking and floating system of fish is much simpler than people's invention. The sinking and floating system of fish is just an inflated swim bladder. The swim bladder is not controlled by muscles, but relies on secreting oxygen into the swim bladder or reabsorbing part of the oxygen in the swim bladder to regulate the gas content in the swim bladder, allowing the fish to sink and float freely. However, it was too late to inspire and help submarine designers with such an ingenious sinking and floating system of fish.

Sound is an indispensable element in people's lives. Through language, people exchange thoughts and feelings, and beautiful music enables people to enjoy art. Engineers and technicians also apply acoustic systems in industrial production and military technology, becoming one of the most important pieces of information. Since the advent of submarines, what follows is how ships on the surface can find the location of the submarine to prevent sneak attacks; and after the submarine sinks into the water, it must also accurately determine the position and distance of the enemy ship to facilitate attack. Therefore, during the First World War, various means were used in the struggle between the opposing parties on the ocean, on the surface and in the water. Naval engineers also use acoustic systems as an important means of reconnaissance. The first thing used is a hydrophone, also called a noise direction finder, which detects enemy ships by listening to the noise they emit while they are sailing. As long as there are enemy ships sailing in the surrounding waters, the machines and propellers will make noise, which can be heard through hydrophones and the enemy can be detected in time. However, the hydrophones at that time were very imperfect and could generally only pick up the noise of the own ship. To listen to enemy ships, the ship had to slow down or even stop completely to distinguish the noise of the submarine, which was not conducive to combat operations. Soon, French scientist Langevin (1872-1946) successfully used the properties of ultrasonic reflection to detect underwater ships. An ultrasonic generator is used to emit ultrasonic waves into the water. If it encounters a target, it will be reflected back and received by the receiver. Based on the time interval and orientation of the received echoes, the orientation and distance of the target can be measured. This is the so-called sonar system. The invention of the artificial sonar system and its outstanding achievements in detecting enemy submarines once amazed people. Don't you know that long before humans appeared on the earth, bats and dolphins had already been able to use the "echolocation" sonar system with ease?

Creatures have lived in nature surrounded by sound for a long time. They use sound to find food, escape from enemies, court and reproduce. Therefore, sound is an important information for living things to survive. Italian scientist Spalantier discovered long ago that bats can fly freely in complete darkness, avoiding obstacles and preying on flying insects. However, after plugging the bat's ears and sealing its mouth, they It's hard to move in the dark. Faced with these facts, Spalantier came up with a conclusion that is difficult for people to accept: bats can "see" with their ears and mouths. They can emit ultrasonic waves with their mouths, and then use their ears to receive the ultrasonic waves when they hit obstacles and reflect back. After the First World War, in 1920, Hardy believed that bats emitted acoustic signals at frequencies beyond the range of human hearing. He also proposed that the bat's target positioning method is the same as the ultrasonic echo positioning method invented by Langevin during World War I. Unfortunately, Hardy's tip went unnoticed, and engineers found it hard to believe that bats had "echolocation" technology. It wasn't until the use of electronic measuring instruments in 1983 that it was completely confirmed that bats locate themselves by emitting ultrasonic waves. But this no longer helped with the early inventions of radar and sonar.

Another example is the belated study of insect behavior. 400 years after Leonardo da Vinci studied bird flight and built the first aircraft, after a long period of repeated practice, people finally invented the airplane in 1903, allowing mankind to realize their dream of flying into the sky. Due to continuous improvement, 30 years later, human aircraft surpassed birds in terms of speed, altitude and flying distance, demonstrating human wisdom and talent. But when continuing to develop aircraft that fly faster and higher, designers encountered another problem, which was the flutter phenomenon in aerodynamics. When an airplane flies, harmful vibrations occur in its wings. The faster it flies, the stronger the flutter of the wings becomes, and the wings may even break, causing the airplane to crash. Many test pilots have lost their lives as a result.

Aircraft designers spent a lot of effort to eliminate harmful flutter phenomena, and it took a long time to find a solution to this problem. A weighting device is placed just on the far end of the leading edge of the wing, thus eliminating harmful vibrations. However, insects have been flying in the air 300 million years ago, and they are no exception to the harm of flutter. After a long period of evolution, insects have successfully obtained methods to prevent flutter. When biologists were studying dragonfly wings, they discovered that there was a dark, thickened horny area above the leading edge of each wing - a wing eye or wing nevus. If the wing eyes were removed, flight would become erratic. Experiments have proven that it is the horny tissue of the wing eye that eliminates the harm of flutter in the wings of dragonfly flying. This is very similar to the designer's superb invention. If designers first learn the function of wing eyes from insects and obtain design ideas that are beneficial to solving flutter, they can avoid long-term exploration and personnel sacrifices. Facing the eyes of dragonfly wings, aircraft designers feel as if they have met at a late date!

The above three cases are thought-provoking and have inspired people a lot. Long before humans appeared on the earth, various creatures had been living in nature for hundreds of millions of years. During their long-term evolution in their struggle for survival, they acquired the ability to adapt to nature. Biological research can show that the extremely precise and complete mechanisms formed by organisms during the evolution process enable them to adapt to changes in the internal and external environment. The biological world has many fruitful abilities. Such as biosynthesis in the body, energy conversion, information reception and transmission, recognition of the outside world, navigation, directional calculation and synthesis, etc., showing many advantages that are incomparable to machines. The smallness, sensitivity, speed, efficiency, reliability and anti-interference of living things are truly amazing.

[Edit this paragraph] The bridge connecting biology and technology

Since James Watt (1736～1819) invented the steam engine in 1782, people have gained strength in the struggle for production. motivation. In terms of industrial technology, it basically solved the problems of energy conversion, control and utilization, thus triggering the first industrial revolution. All kinds of machines sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. The development of industrial technology greatly expanded and enhanced the ability of human beings. The physical fitness frees people from heavy physical labor. With the development of technology, people experienced the electrical age after the steam engine and moved towards the automation age.

The advent of the electronic computer in the 1940s added valuable wealth to the treasure house of human science and technology. It can handle tens of thousands of various kinds of information that people have on hand with reliable and efficient capabilities. , liberating people from the vast ocean of numbers and information. The use of computers and automatic devices can make people relaxed and labor-saving in the face of complicated production processes. They can accurately adjust and control production procedures to make product specifications precise. However, the automatic control device works according to fixed procedures established by people, which makes its control ability very limited. Automatic devices lack the ability to analyze and respond flexibly to the outside world. If any unexpected situation occurs, the automatic device will stop working, or even an accident may occur. This is a serious shortcoming of the automatic device itself. To overcome this shortcoming, it is nothing more than to enable "communication" between the various components of the machine and between the machine and the environment, that is, to enable the automatic control device to have the ability to adapt to changes in the internal and external environment. To solve this problem, engineering technology must solve how to accept and convert. Issues of utilizing and controlling information. Therefore, the utilization and control of information have become a major contradiction in the development of industrial technology. How to resolve this contradiction? The biological world has provided useful enlightenment to mankind.

In order for humans to gain enlightenment from biological systems, they first need to study whether biological and technical devices have the same characteristics. The theory of conditioning, which emerged in the 1940s, contrasted living things with machines in a general sense. By 1944, some scientists had determined that machines and organisms were consistent on a series of issues such as communication, automatic control, and statistical mechanics. Based on this understanding, in 1947, a new discipline - cybernetics - emerged.

Cybernetics comes from Greek, and its original meaning is "the helmsman." According to the definition given by Norbef Wiener (1894-1964), one of the founders of cybernetics, cybernetics is the science of "control and communication in animals and machines". Although this definition is too simple and is just a subtitle of Wiener's classic work on cybernetics, it directly links people's understanding of living things and machines.

The basic point of view of cybernetics is that there is a certain integration between animals (especially humans) and machines (including various automation devices for communication, control, and calculation), that is, when they have There are certain unique laws in the control system. According to cybernetic research, the control processes of various control systems include the transmission, transformation and processing of information. The normal operation of the control system depends on the normal operation of the information. The so-called control system refers to the organic combination of the controlled object and various control elements, components, and circuits into a whole with certain control functions. From an information point of view, a control system is a network or system of information channels.

There are many similarities between control systems in machines and living organisms, so people have become very interested in biological automatic systems, and use physical, mathematical and even technical models to conduct further research on biological systems. Therefore, control theory has become the theoretical basis for linking biology and engineering technology. Become a bridge between biological systems and technological systems.

There are indeed clear similarities between living organisms and machines, and these similarities can manifest themselves at different levels of study of living organisms. From simple single cells to complex organ systems (such as the nervous system), there are various physiological processes that are regulated and automatically controlled. We can think of organisms as machines with special abilities. The difference from other machines is that organisms have the ability to adapt to the external environment and reproduce themselves. An organism can also be compared to an automated factory. Its various functions follow the laws of mechanics; its various structures work in harmony; they can respond quantitatively to certain signals and stimuli, and can act like Like automatic control, the organization regulates itself in a self-controlled manner with the help of specialized feedback contacts. For example, the constant body temperature, normal blood pressure, normal blood sugar concentration, etc. in our body are all the result of regulation by the complex self-control system in the body. The emergence and development of cybernetics has built a bridge between biological systems and technical systems, causing many engineers to consciously seek new design ideas and principles from biological systems. As a result, there has been a trend that engineers take the initiative to learn biological science knowledge in order to achieve results in the field of engineering technology in which they collaborate with biologists.

[Edit this paragraph] The birth of bionics

With the needs of production and the development of science and technology, since the 1950s, people have realized that biological systems are opening up new One of the main approaches of technology consciously regards the biological world as the source of various technical ideas, design principles and creative inventions. People use chemistry, physics, mathematics and technical models to conduct in-depth research on biological systems, which has promoted the great development of biology, and the study of functional mechanisms in organisms has also made rapid progress. At this point, simulated creatures cease to be a fascinating fantasy and become a fact that can be achieved. Biologists and engineers actively collaborated and began to use the knowledge gained from the biological world to improve old or create new engineering and technical equipment. Biology began to enter the ranks of technological innovation and technological revolution in all walks of life, and first achieved success in military sectors such as automatic control, aviation, and navigation. Therefore, the disciplines of biology and engineering technology were combined and interpenetrated to give birth to a new science - bionics.

As an independent discipline, bionics was officially born in September 1960. The first bionics conference was held by the U.S. Air Force at Dayton Air Force Base in Ohio. The central topic discussed at the meeting was "Can concepts obtained from analyzing biological systems be used in the design of artificial information processing systems?" Steele named the emerging science "Bionics", which in Greek means the study of life. The science of system function. In 1963, my country translated "Bionics" as "bionics". Steele defines bionics as “the science of imitating biological principles to build technical systems, or making artificial technical systems have or resemble biological characteristics.” In short, bionics is the science of imitating living things. To be precise, bionics is the study of the structure, characteristics, functions, energy conversion, information control and other excellent characteristics of biological systems, and applying them to technical systems, improving existing technical engineering equipment, and creating new ones. Comprehensive science of technical systems such as technological processes, building configurations, and automation devices. From a biological perspective, bionics is a branch of "applied biology"; from an engineering technology perspective, bionics provides new principles and new technologies for the design and construction of new technical equipment based on the study of biological systems. methods and new approaches. The glorious mission of bionics is to provide human beings with the most reliable, flexible, efficient and economical technical systems that are close to biological systems and benefit mankind.

[Edit this paragraph] Research methods and content of bionics

Biomimicry is an emerging edge science that is a combination of biology, mathematics and engineering technology. The first bionics conference identified an interesting and vivid symbol for bionics: a huge integral symbol that "integrated" a scalpel and a soldering iron together. The meaning of this symbol not only shows the composition of bionics, but also summarizes the research approach of bionics.

The task of bionics is to study the excellent capabilities of biological systems and the principles that produce them, model them, and then apply these principles to design and manufacture new technical equipment.

The main research method of bionics is to propose models and conduct simulations. Its research process roughly has the following three stages:

The first is the research on biological prototypes. According to the specific topics raised in actual production, the biological data obtained from the research are simplified, the content that is beneficial to the technical requirements is absorbed, and the factors irrelevant to the production technical requirements are eliminated to obtain a biological model; the second stage is to carry out the data provided by the biological model. Mathematical analysis, abstracting its internal connections, and using mathematical language to "translate" the biological model into a mathematical model with a certain meaning; finally, the mathematical model creates a physical model that can be used for experiments in engineering technology.

Of course, in the process of biological simulation, it is not just simple bionics, but more importantly, there is innovation in bionics. After many repetitions of practice - understanding - and practice again, the simulated things can become more and more in line with the needs of production. The results of such simulations will make the final machine equipment different from the biological prototype, and in some aspects even exceed the capabilities of the biological prototype. For example, today's aircraft exceed the flight capabilities of birds in many aspects, and electronic computers are faster and more reliable than human calculations in complex calculations.

The basic research methods of bionics make it show a prominent feature in biological research, that is, integrity. From the overall perspective of bionics, it regards biology as a complex system that can communicate with and control the internal and external environment. Its mission is to study the interrelationships between the various parts of a complex system and the behavior and status of the entire system. The most basic characteristics of living things are their self-renewal and self-replication, and their connection with the outside world is inseparable. Only when organisms obtain matter and energy from the environment can they grow and reproduce; only when organisms receive information from the environment and constantly adjust and synthesize can they adapt and evolve. The long-term evolutionary process enables organisms to achieve the unity of structure and function, and the coordination and unity of parts and the whole. Biomimicry must study the quantitative relationship between organisms and external stimuli (input information), that is, focusing on the unity of quantitative relationships, in order to carry out simulations. To achieve this goal, any partial method cannot achieve satisfactory results. Therefore, the research method of bionics must focus on the whole.

The research content of bionics is extremely rich and colorful, because the biological world itself contains thousands of species, which have various excellent structures and functions for research in various industries. In the past twenty years since the advent of bionics, bionics research has developed rapidly and achieved great results. Its research scope can include electronic bionics, mechanical bionics, architectural bionics, chemical bionics, etc. With the development of modern engineering technology, there are many branches of disciplines, and corresponding technical bionic research is carried out in bionics. For example: the navigation department studies the fluid mechanics of aquatic animal movement; the aviation department simulates the flight of birds and insects, and the positioning and navigation of animals; the engineering construction simulates biomechanics; the radio technology department studies human nerve cells and sensory organs. and neural network simulation; computer technology’s simulation of the brain and research on artificial intelligence, etc. Typical topics presented at the first bionics conference include: "What are the characteristics of artificial neurons", "Problems in designing biological computers", "Using machines to recognize images", "Learning machines", etc. It can be seen that research on electronic bionics is relatively extensive. Research topics in bionics mostly focus on the study of the following three biological prototypes, namely the overall function of animal sensory organs, neurons, and nervous systems. Later, research in mechanical bionics and chemical bionics was also carried out. In recent years, new branches have emerged, such as human body bionics, molecular bionics, and space bionics.

In short, the research content of bionics covers a wider range of content, from molecular bionics that simulates the microscopic world to macroscopic cosmic bionics. Today's science and technology is in a new era in which various natural sciences are highly integrated, intertwined and infiltrated. Biomimicry combines the research and practice of life through simulation methods, and at the same time has played a significant role in the development of biology. great promotion effect. Under the penetration and influence of other disciplines, the research methods of biological sciences have undergone fundamental changes; the content has also deepened from the level of description and analysis to the direction of precision and quantification. The development of biological sciences uses bionics as a channel to deliver valuable information and rich nutrients to various natural sciences and technical sciences, accelerating the development of science. Therefore, the scientific research of bionics shows infinite vitality, and its development and achievements will make a huge contribution to the development of the world's overall science and technology.

[Edit this paragraph] Research scope of bionics

The research scope of bionics mainly includes: mechanical bionics, molecular bionics, energy bionics, information and control bionics, etc.

◇ Mechanical bionics studies and imitates the static properties of the gross structure and fine structure of organisms, as well as the dynamic properties of the relative motion of each component of the organism in the body and the movement of the organism in the environment. For example, long-span thin-shell buildings imitating seashells and columns imitating femur structures not only eliminate areas where stress is particularly concentrated, but also use the least amount of building materials to bear the maximum load. In the military, the groove structure of dolphin skin is imitated, and artificial dolphin skin is applied to the shell of the ship to reduce navigation currents and increase speed;

◇Molecular bionics is the study and simulation of enzymes in organisms Catalysis, selectivity and permeability of biological membranes, analysis and synthesis of biological macromolecules or their analogs, etc. For example, after clarifying the chemical structure of the sex attractant hormone of the forest pest gypsy moth, a similar organic compound was synthesized, which can trap and kill male insects in a field insect trap with one ten-millionth of a microgram;

◇Energy bionics is the study and imitation of energy conversion processes in organisms such as bioluminescence of bioelectric organs and direct conversion of chemical energy into mechanical energy by muscles;

◇Information and control bionics is the study and simulation of sensations The information processing process in living organisms in terms of organs, neurons and neural networks, as well as the intelligent activities of high-level centers.

For example, an "autocorrelation velocimeter" based on the optokinetic response of a weevil can measure the landing speed of an aircraft. Based on the working principle of the retinal side suppression network of the horseshoe crab compound eye, some devices have been successfully developed that can enhance image contours, improve contrast, and thus contribute to blurred target detection. More than 100 types of neuron models have been established, and new computers have been constructed on this basis.

Imitate the human learning process and create a machine called a "perceptron", which can learn by changing the weight of the connections between components through training, thereby achieving pattern recognition. In addition, it also studies and simulates control mechanisms in biological systems such as homeostasis, motion control, animal orientation and navigation, as well as bionics aspects of human-machine systems.

In some literature, parts of molecular bionics and energy bionics are called chemical bionics, while parts of information and control bionics are called neurobionics.

The scope of bionics is very wide, and information and control bionics is a major field. On the one hand, it is due to the need for automation to develop towards intelligent control, and on the other hand, it is because biological science has developed to such a stage that studying the brain has become the biggest challenge to neuroscience. The bionics aspect of artificial intelligence and intelligent robot research—research on biological pattern recognition, research and simulation of brain learning, memory, and thinking processes, control reliability and coordination issues in living organisms, etc.—is the main focus of bionics research.

Control is closely related to information bionics and biological cybernetics. Both study control and information processes in biological systems, and both use models of biological systems. However, the purpose of the former is mainly to construct practical artificial hardware systems; while biological cybernetics seeks explanations for biological behavior based on the general principles of cybernetics and the theories of technical science.

The most extensive use of analogy, simulation and model methods is the outstanding feature of bionics research methods. The aim is not to directly replicate every detail, but to understand how biological systems work, with the central purpose of achieving specific functions. It is generally believed that there are the following three related aspects in bionics research: biological prototypes, mathematical models and hardware models. The former is the foundation, the latter is the purpose, and the mathematical model is the indispensable bridge between the two.

Due to the complexity of biological systems, figuring out the mechanism of a certain biological system requires a long research cycle, and solving practical problems requires close collaboration between multiple disciplines over a long period of time, which limits the development speed of bionics. main reason.