Researchers explore the state of the art of Biomimetics
Does it make sense to study the living to make machines? Or explore the intricate architecture of a shell to design a building? Within this field, scientists look to nature for their best ideas—we’re talking about Biomimicry. It’s a scientific field that blends a flow of ideas from the biological sciences into engineering. Biomimetic research is bringing together scientists from disciplines such as Neuroscience, Cell Biology, Computation, Psychology, and many others to produce new technologies that make sense in today’s ever-changing world.
Nature’s been designing and creating some of the most incredibly sophisticated creatures and structures on earth for millions of years, so it’s time we get serious about figuring out what mother nature’s been doing right! But before scientists and policy makers can really get down to business, we need to know exactly where Biomimetics is at, which is why researchers Nathan F Lepora, Paul Verschure, and Tony J Prescott published the paper: The state of the art in biomimetics in the journal of Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.
The trio set out to answer four main questions: How rapidly is the subject of Biomimetics expanding? Where is Biomimetic research being published? What subjects does the field of Biomimetics encompass? And, are there research communities within Biomimetics? Here’s what was found after analysing a database of publications on Biomimetics over the last 15 years:
Is the subject of Biomimetics expanding?
You bet! Biomimetic research has experienced explosive growth, with the number of published papers doubling every 2-3 years, currently reaching more than 3000 publications per year. Over the last 15 years, this growth has far outplaced that of science in general which only doubles about every 13 years.
Which subjects does Biomimetics encompasses?
Just take a peek at the word cloud featured in this blog! It pictures the top 100 most common words found in Biomimetic papers. Their size is relative to the frequency that they occur in.
Are there research communities within the field of Biomimetics?
Yes. Five communities are evident. Robotics; Ethology-based robotics; Biomimetic actuators; Biomaterials science; and structural bioengineering. And, since these were found to be fairly interconnected, it supports the notion that biomimetics can be considered a single discipline.
Where is Biomimetics research published?
57% of Biomimetics research is published in journals and 43% is published in conference proceedings. Biomaterials (Elsevier), Bioinspiration and Biomimetics (IOP), and Journal of Biomedical Materials Research (Wiley) are the top three journals publishing on the subject of biomimetics.
Go ahead and get on board with Biomimetics! For more info you access the full paper HERE
