The word “Design” is used in many ways. But most of them consider it from the standpoint of artificial or man-made. In other words, as “Human Intelligence”, But we should remember we are born to “Design”. That is “Instinct”. We are born with instinct to survive. “Instint” is “Natural Intelligence”. “Instinct” plays an important role for making decisions. In decision making, we need to prioritze them. If the first one fails to satisfy our expectation, we take the next one. But our world is increasing complexity and complicatedness, and our bodies and movements are different from person to person. To cope with such increasing diversification, “Instinct” is calling for support. Therefore,Mahalanobis Distance-Pattern (MDP) approach is proposed in this paper as one of the tools to support our “Instinct”. MDP combines ordinal Mahalanobis Distance and pattern which is a non-verbal communication tool.

The research presented in this paper explores a novel method for assessing the effects of biophilic restorative experiences on designers’ cognition by combining the use of physiological, neurocognitive and semantic measures. A total of 12 engineering graduate students participated in a three-step pilot experiment that consisted of (1) a stressor (the Trier Social Stress Test), (2) a destressing intervention (biophilic sound experience), and (3) a design task. Heart rate variability (HRV) was used to track subjects’ autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to track patterns of brain activation in subjects’ prefrontal cortex (PFC). Changes in design quality were assessed by the semantic space they explored, measured through a natural language processing (NLP) technique. Preliminary findings suggest that an auditory biophilic restorative experience can change designers’ bodies, brains, and minds. Results from this pilot study encourage further exploration of the use of exposure to nature-based stimuli as a method to help enhance engineering design cognition.

The work introduced two novel multiscale multifunctional tire designs developed using the Domain Integrated Design (DID) method and modelled with the LatticeQuery geometric modelling software. Furthermore, this research validates the meta-level parameter “interaction area” proposed for selecting biological analogy in the DID method. These two use cases were simulated with Abaqus. The concepts covered in this work are an example of multi-functional design. The obtained results validate the meta-level parameter derived from the DID methodology.

Bio-inspired design (BID) involves generating innovative ideas for engineering design by drawing inspiration from natural biological phenomena and systems, using a form of design-by-analogy. Despite its many successes, BID approaches encounter research challenges including unstructured data and existing models that hinder comprehension and processing, limited focus on finding biological knowledge compared to defined problems, and insufficient guidance of the ideation process with algorithms. This paper proposes a knowledge-based approach to address the challenges. The approach involves transforming unstructured data into structured knowledge, including information about natural sources, their benefits, and applications. The structured knowledge is then used to construct a semantic network, enabling designers to retrieve information for BID in two ways. Furthermore, a three-step ideation method is developed to encourage divergent thinking and explore additional potential solutions by drawing inspiration and utilizing knowledge. The knowledge-based BID approach is implemented as a tool and design cases are conducted to illustrate the process of applying this tool for BID.

Humans are able to perform skilful movements by coordinating muscles throughout the body. It has been revealed that not only neural mechanisms but also direct and dynamic interactions between body parts contribute to muscular coordination. Tensegrity, accurately biotensegrity, can be considered to the basic mechanism for the interactions. Tensegrity structures are composed of tensile and compressive components, and are lighter and more flexible than existing rigid structures. The authors investigated designing wearable tensegrity structures for extending human motor ability, especially assisting in carrying heavy objects. Based on Flemons' spine model, we devised a columnar tensegrity structure that can be expanded to the size of the whole body, and connected each of four columns to the front and back of the body on right and left side. The wearable tensegrity structures can deform flexibly due to tension distribution when external force is applied, and follow the human motions in twisting trunk and walking. Experimental results in carrying heavy objects showed that some muscle activities around hip and knee tended to decrease by using the structures when those joints extended.

This paper discusses the formation of structures by taking the process of gene transcription and translation as the template. The hypothesis of this paper is that the gene transcription and translation process can describe the formation of structures both in engineering design and in biology. The paper first presents design examples including integrated circuit (IC) chambers, flapping wings of bird robots, and typical mechanisms and formulate the formation patterns of the design process as four steps: information interpretation, selection of building blocks, the connection of building blocks, and formation of structures. The key step of the formation process is to assemble building blocks for structures both in engineering and in biology. Building blocks in biology are amino acids while they are structures in design. The autonomous degree of the formation process depends on the level of building blocks. The reuse degree of the building blocks depends on the level of building blocks too. In biology, structures of proteins are self-organized, so one way towards design automation is to use lower-level building blocks.

This paper investigates the design and development of bio-inspired suture pins that would reduce the insertion force and thereby reducing the pain in the patients. Inspired by kingfisher's beak and porcupine quills, the conceptual design of the suture pin is developed by using a unique ideation methodology that is proposed in this research. The methodology is named as Domain Integrated Design, which involves in classifying bio-inspired structures into various domains. There is little work done on such bio-inspired multifunctional aspect. In this research we have categorized the vast biological functionalities into domains namely, cellular structures, shapes, cross-sections, and surfaces. Multi-functional bio-inspired structures are designed by combining different domains. In this research, the hypothesis is verified by simulating the total deformation of tissue and the needle at the moment of puncture. The results show that the bio-inspired suture pin has a low deformation on the tissue at higher velocities at the puncture point and low deformation in its own structure when an axial force (reaction force) is applied to its tip. This makes the design stiff and thus require less force of insertion.

The paper investigates to what extent the knowledge accumulated in the field of Bio-Inspired Design might benefit the process of biologicalisation in manufacturing. According to visions making inroads in the manufacturing field, the latter will not be limited to the consideration and the analysis of biological principles as a source of inspiration for solving technical and organizational problems. In fact, the process of biologicalisation in manufacturing foresees the development of bio-integrated and bio-intelligent systems. In light of these expected developments, Bio-Inspired Design’s might fail to support the whole transition to take place in the manufacturing field. Methodological limitations still to overcome represent an important barrier in this perspective too. While a transfer of knowledge from the design to the manufacturing domain seems unlikely, the authors individuate aspects that encourage cross-fertilization between Bio-Inspired Design and biologicalisation in manufacturing. These include the need to include biologists in engineering teams, the objective of sustainable development, and a shared attention to the evolution of (Design for) Additive Manufacturing.

Nature has always been a source of inspiration for designers and engineers, through the imitation of biological patterns and structures. This emulating and creative process is nowadays supported by technologies and tools as additive manufacturing and computational design. This paper describes the design and prototyping of a lamp inspired by a plant called Physalis Alkekengi, known as Chinese Lantern. We present the development of an algorithm, based on a computational model from literature, to realize the 2D pattern and leaves. They were then 3D printed to create the structure of the lamp and obtain an aesthetical and symbolic shading effect.

Using bio-inspiration allows engineers to use the knowledge implicitly built up by natural evolution. Current tools for providing engineers with bio-inspiration yield many biological working principles. Starting from the Linnaean taxonomy, which can be seen as a design revision history, this work proposes metrics for a working principle based on the observations of that working principle in different organisms. A first metric measures the reinforcement of a working principle via the number of observations (publications/submissions to a database) made by biologists. Furthermore, biological strategies that evolve independently and use the same working principle might be more resilient and globally applicable, prompting the proposal of a metric measuring the spread in the taxonomy. Finally, bio-novelty measures the biological novelty, inversely related to the biological diversity employing the working principle. To illustrate the use of the metrics, they are applied to the working principles identified in the ‘temporary attachment’ category of AskNature.

Much of the work in design research focusses on the development of methods and tools to support engineering designers. Many of these tools are nowadays implemented in software. Due to the strongly growing use of computers and smart devices in the last two decades, the expectations of users increased dramatically. In particular users expect good usability, for example little effort for learning to apply the software. Therefore, the usability evaluation of design software tools is crucial. A software tool with bad usability will not be used in industrial practice. Recommendations for usability evaluation of software often stem from the field of Human Computer Interaction. The aim of this paper is to tailor these general approaches to the specific needs of engineering design. In addition, we propose a method to analyse the results of the evaluation and to derive suggestions for improving the design software tool. We apply the usability evaluation method on a use case - the KoMBi software tool for bio-inspired design. The case study provides additional insights with regards to problem, causes and improvement categories.

As catalysts for product innovation and product development, different approaches for biologically inspired design (BID) are exciting options. However, while general BID theory require a focus on single functions, real world products are characterized by performing multiple functions. The development of an anterior eye-chamber model is used to showcase the issue.

In a systematic literature review (SLR), state-of-the-art methodologies, methods and tools BID practice are discovered and the current state of multi-functionality in BID are assessed.

The SLR revealed 18 contributions with 8 BID methodologies and 12 stage-specific BID tools (of which 50% addressed the solution search phase) in addition to 5 papers addressing multi-functionality in BID. At present multi-functionality in BID is only treated in a limited set of papers. While designers interested in BID are advised to discover multi-functional analogies, the present approach to handling multi-functional problems in BID suggest functional decomposition and multiple BID efforts. Therefore, the development of design support for handling multi-functional problems, including tools for problem analysis are needed.

This research was motivated by the need to design for self-organized and sustained collaborative communities. A collaborative community is defined as a group of people who are bound by a sense of community and fulfil their unmet needs through collaboration (Baek, Meroni, & Manzini, 2015). A community with limited resources and premature organisational structure and therefore experience an unbalanced workload is fragile. If the community fails to distribute workloads fairly within and the commitment of the sacrificing members is exhausted, it is likely to fall apart. Inspired by the self- organization phenomena in nature, we designed a tool that these communities can use to conceive strategies that contribute to autonomy and collaboration. For validation, we applied the tool to an industrial design student club. The results demonstrate that despite the differences between social and ecological systems, there is a potential to learn from nature to design for self-organized collaborative communities with the condition that one has sufficient knowledge about both the references and the design target. We also discuss the problem-solving and learning effects of the tool.

The strength of biomimetics comes from its ability to draw from life mechanisms and strategies to design innovative solutions. In spite of recent methodological progresses, more specifically on tools and processes, biomimetics' implementation still faces strong difficulties. Among other things, design teams have a hard time finding and selecting relevant biological strategies. Facing these challenges, we consider an alternative, yet well recognized, approach: the integration of profiles having a training in natural science within biomimetic design teams. As biologists aren't used to work in design teams, there is a need for a process actually guiding their practice in biomimetics and determining the way they will interact with the “traditional” design team. After studying the literature and asking for experts' opinion on the matter, we introduced a biomimetic design process considering this new profile as an integral part of biomimetic design teams. With the final goal of making biomimetics implementable, this proposed theoretical process is currently tested in both a student and an industrial project in order to optimize our methodological contribution with practical feedbacks.

Bio-inspired design is an innovative methodology for transferring biological solutions into technical solutions, for example for the design of weight- and load-optimized components. Bio-inspired design therefore offers great potential for meeting the challenges of designing additively manufactured components, such as avoiding warpage, supporting structures and material minimisation. Nevertheless, apart from bio-inspired topology optimization tools, bio-inspired design is rarely used in industrial practice because for many companies the practical applicability up to the prototype is not obvious. The aim of this work is therefore a practical approach to the search for biological systems, analysis, abstraction and transfer of analogies. We apply bio-inspired design on the design of a microtiter plate manufactured by stereolithography, whose dimensional accuracy is impaired by warpage. Here, the venus’ flower basket, a deep-sea sponge, can serve as a model. It has a hierarchical structure of silicate needles whose elements are abstracted for bio-inspired transfer. We show and evaluate the transfer of different analogies using a prototype.

Information collection may affect the design quality and designer's performance through changing the structure of information and the way how information is searched and organized. Based on the theoretical analysis conducted by Wang et al., the present work continues to investigate the influence of designer's natural choice of information collection strategy on his/her mental stress both theoretically and empirically. Designers’ stresses are quantified from HRV data and are compared under different information collection strategies.

In solution-driven BID (sol-BID) a challenge is to identify suited applications that will benefit from the solutions principles found in nature. A well-known example of sol-BID is the self-cleaning lotus plant, that has inspired lotus paint and other coating methods. However, sol-BID is often performed by biologists with insight into the biological strategy and organism and typically only little knowledge of technical applications and design methodology. Searching for applications is therefore a challenge to many. Sol-BID has many things in common with technical application search where new applications are sought for a specific production technology or another competence characterizing a company. Experiences from technical application search could therefore form a valuable input for how to perform sol-BID. The paper presents two case studies of application search and proposes a procedure to be used in solution driven BID.

A workflow for the design process of technological products was derived from a model that describes the interplay of lightweight design principles in the human locomotive system. This workflow is not yet ready to be used. In this paper, starting points for new research with the goal to enable the use of the workflow are discussed. Using the interplay of lightweight design principles of the human body in technical applications is approached because it is claimed that the interplay leads to an additional reduction of mass. This was proven for a technological system in a previous study. This study lead to a workflow to consider the interplay of the principles in the design process of the technological system. In this paper, the essential parts of this workflow are described in an abstract diagram as a calculation workflow. Subsequently, inputs and outputs of the workflow are identified. Then, the calculation workflow is integrated into the process of design. Afterwards, it is discussed that tension chording, which is one of the lightweight design principles, needs further investigation, because the interplay of the principles can only be used if the principles themselves are used.

The emerging field of biomimicry and learning to design with and for nature has expanded in recent years through a diversity of educational programs. Inspiration following natural forms may give the appearance of being sustainable, but the question remains, how sustainable is it? Misunderstanding the function of these forms may leave designers with products not as sustainable as desired. Biomimicry education addresses these issues by integrating three essential elements into their design thinking phases and by using analogical transfer while doing so. This field learns from nature as model, nature as measure, and nature as mentor, throughout the design process. Through examination, analyses and verification of students designs and reflective processes at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, this research considers natures analogies in educational factors, determining which elements are influential when incorporating biomimicry into design education.