Article
Engineering, Manufacturing
Jan-Hendrik Groth, Mirco Magnini, Christopher Tuck, Adam Clare
Summary: Current biomimetic designs lack the incorporation of natural variance, while the presented methodology allows for the introduction of randomness through the superimposition of Gaussian distribution on regular arrays of parametric unit cells, preventing overlaps and providing a template for more accurate mimicry of biological structures across multi-physics problems.
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
(2022)
Review
Plant Sciences
Olga Speck, Thomas Speck
Summary: What started as a curiosity-driven exploration has evolved into systematic biomimetic approaches, where the useful functions of biological structures are transferred to technical products. Plant biomimetics utilizes knowledge from plant morphology, anatomy, and mechanics to explore the form-structure-function relationship, with functional morphology playing a key role in developing engineering solutions. The future of biomimetics will focus on bioinspired developments for better sustainability.
Article
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Tara E. Mensch, Elizabeth A. Delesky, Robert W. Learsch, Kyle E. O. Foster, Sai Kaushik Yeturu, Wil Srubar, Garret Miyake
Summary: Engineering design has been inspired by the unique saddle geometry of the mantis shrimp for enhanced energy storage capabilities, with investigations indicating that the curvature of contact and orthogonal faces play a significant role in spring response. The study also showed that the flexible component of mantis saddles does not contribute significantly to energy storage capabilities, suggesting potential for tailored energy storage moduli in engineering applications through modulating saddle geometry.
BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Juntian Qu, Baijin Mao, Zhenkun Li, Yining Xu, Kunyu Zhou, Xiangyu Cao, Qigao Fan, Minyi Xu, Bin Liang, Houde Liu, Xueqian Wang, Xiaohao Wang
Summary: Tactile sensing technology is crucial for soft grippers to interact safely with unstructured environments and obtain precise properties of objects. This review introduces the development of tactile sensing techniques, different sensor types, sensing modalities and methodologies, application scenarios, challenges, and proposed strategies for soft grippers.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Review
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Guillaume Lecointre, Annabelle Aish, Nadia Ameziane, Tarik Chekchak, Christophe Goupil, Philippe Grandcolas, Julian F. V. Vincent, Jian-Sheng Sun
Summary: Effective bioinspiration requires dialogue between designers and biologists rooted in a shared scientific understanding of living systems. The Biomimicry Institute has produced ten Unifying Patterns of Nature to engage those seeking biologically inspired solutions, but they may dishearten biologists. This paper aims to identify why and propose alternative principles based on evolutionary theory.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Sheeraz Athar, Gaurav Patel, Zhengtong Xu, Qiang Qiu, Yu She
Summary: This study presents an innovative robotic finger called VisTac, which combines high-resolution tactile and visual perception in a single device. Using multimodal sensing capabilities, VisTac can accurately locate objects in 3-D space and manipulate them according to tasks.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Chao Shang, Qunhui Xu, Nengmin Liang, Jianpeng Zhang, Lu Li, Zhengchun Peng
Summary: Inspired by human skin, a modular multi-parameter perception electronic skin design is proposed. By analyzing the stress field, real-time three-dimensional forces can be resolved and the hardness of objects can be detected. Moreover, the sensing arrays can be randomly assembled and integrated on differently curved surfaces without affecting the measurement of the stress field.
NPJ FLEXIBLE ELECTRONICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Libei Huang, Yong Liu, Geng Li, Yun Song, Jianjun Su, Le Cheng, Weihua Guo, Ganggang Zhao, Hanchen Shen, Zheng Yan, Ben Zhong Tang, Ruquan Ye
Summary: The development of high-performance miniaturized and flexible airflow sensors is vital for emerging applications. In this study, laser-induced graphene (LIG) was used to fabricate high-performance, flexible airflow sensors with different structures including porous LIG, vertical LIG fiber, and suspended LIG fiber structures. Among them, the suspended LIG fiber with scale-like structure achieved the shortest response time, highest sensitivity, and the lowest detection threshold compared to state-of-the-art airflow sensors. These sensors were also demonstrated in various applications. This study will contribute to the development of next-generation waterflow, sound, and motion sensors.
Review
Environmental Sciences
Nurul Izzati Othmani, Syahidah Amni Mohamed, Nor Hamizah Abdul Hamid, Noorliyana Ramlee, Lee Bak Yeo, Mohd Yazid Mohd Yunos
Summary: Bio-inspired research in sustainable building design has the potential to inspire new ecological morals, address challenges, and create a healthy environment. By adopting biomimicry approaches and principles, building designs can become more ecologically sustainable, benefiting both humans and other living organisms, while safeguarding biodiversity.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Review
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Ashis Tripathy, Md Julker Nine, Dusan Losic, Filipe Samuel Silva
Summary: This article summarizes the latest developments in bio-inspired sensing and biosensing materials, focusing on design and mechanisms to analyze their potential in multifunctional sensing applications. It highlights various bioinspired structural features and their functional properties, provides an overview of fundamental mechanisms of distinct living creatures, and describes elaborately various sensing and biosensing applications of nature-inspired structures/functions. The challenges and prospects of nature-inspired smart sensing and biosensing technology for the 21st century are also discussed.
MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING R-REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hongsen Niu, Hao Li, Song Gao, Yang Li, Xiao Wei, Yuke Chen, Wenjing Yue, Weijia Zhou, Guozhen Shen
Summary: A full-skin bionic electronic skin driven by artificial intelligence (AI) is proposed, which exhibits high sensitivity and fast response/recovery time. It can evolve from tactile perception to intelligent tactile cognition, and can achieve real-time cognition of object material species and locations via one contact. It has broad application prospects.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Chan Jin Park, Jonghyun Ha, Hae-Ryung Lee, Keunhwan Park, Jeong-Yun Sun, Ho-Young Kim
Summary: Soft systems that respond to external stimuli have applications in soft robotics, energy harvesting, and biomedicine. Existing systems lack directional movement and the ability to grow and sense the direction of stimuli. Inspired by plant cells and fungal hyphae, we have developed an artificial multistimuli-responsive system that can grow in a specific direction in response to various stimuli. This system demonstrates the potential for printing 3D structures, bypassing obstacles, and transporting liquids within water.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Chan Jin Park, Jonghyun Ha, Hae-Ryung Lee, Keunhwan Park, Jeong-Yun Sun, Ho -Young Kim
Summary: This article introduces an artificial multistimuli-responsive tropic tip-growing system inspired by the tropic growth schemes of plant cells and fungal hyphae. By utilizing the phase separation of polymer solution induced by nonsolvent, the system can sense and adjust its growing direction in response to gravity, mechanical contact, and light. With the embedded physical intelligence of sensing and responding to external stimuli, this soft material system achieves multiple tasks including printing 3D structures in a confined space, bypassing mechanical obstacles, and shielded transport of liquids within water.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Megan Peeks, Lidia Badarnah
Summary: This research investigates the overheating of buildings and the use of biomimetic approach to enhance the cooling ability of concrete panels through surface texture modification. Results show that morphological variables and surface area to volume ratios impact heat loss capabilities differently depending on surface roughness. This study demonstrates the potential of morphological adaptation in buildings for passive cooling and suggests further research areas for novel thermal solutions inspired by nature.
Article
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Kevin Araque, Paola Palacios, Dafni Mora, Miguel Chen Austin
Summary: This research evaluates the cooling potential of using biomimicry strategies in a historical heritage city in Panama, showing a reduction in air temperature and improvement in thermal comfort indicators. However, high risks of discomfort persist due to building layout and proximity.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Reem M. Almasri, Amr Al Abed, Yuan Wei, Han Wang, Josiah Firth, Laura A. Poole-Warren, Francois Ladouceur, Torsten Lehmann, Nigel H. Lovell
Summary: This study investigates the impedance properties of optrode technology for biopotential recording. The results show that the liquid crystals in the optrode platform have higher input impedance values suitable for voltage sensing. The optrode system automatically scales the input impedance to maintain a relatively constant ratio, allowing for high spatial-resolution recordings regardless of the size of the recording site.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Masoud Fetanat, Michael Stevens, Pankaj Jain, Christopher Hayward, Erik Meijering, Nigel H. Lovell
Summary: In this study, an improved Harris Hawks optimizer algorithm (HHO+) and a novel fully Elman neural network (FENN) were proposed for the classification of abnormal and normal pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP) using a convolutional neural network (CNN). The results showed that the proposed CNN-FENN-HHO+ method outperformed other methods in classification performance, which may help reduce the mortality rate of patients with heart failure.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Xiaoou Ding, Hongzhi Wang, Jiaxuan Su, Muxian Wang, Jianzhong Li, Hong Gao
Summary: This paper studies the method of multiple data cleaning for incomplete and inconsistent data, proposing a four-step framework called Imp3C. It uses a currency determining method and a consistency distance metric to repair dirty data. Experiments demonstrate that Imp3C outperforms existing methods in data repairing.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON KNOWLEDGE AND DATA ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Abdulrahman Alqahtani, Amr Alabed, Yousef Alharbi, Mohsen Bakouri, Nigel H. Lovell, Socrates Dokos
Summary: This study compares the classical cable equation and the varying-radius cable equation for modeling nerve fibers under different electrical stimulation protocols. The results show that the classical equation has a significant error in simulating intracellular neural electrical stimulation, while the difference between the two equations is smaller in the case of extracellular stimulation.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Michael L. Italiano, Tianruo Guo, Nigel H. Lovell, David Tsai
Summary: This study developed an anatomically accurate 3D model of RGC populations within the human central retina and demonstrated the potential for an epiretinal hexapolar configuration to achieve consistent, spatially confined retinal responses even within the unique and neuron-dense foveal region.
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Ariyamehr Rezaei, Michael C. C. Stevens, Ahmadreza Argha, Alessandro Mascheroni, Alessandro Puiatti, Nigel H. H. Lovell
Summary: In this study, an unobtrusive monitoring system using infrared technology was developed to accurately detect human activities, locations, and critical activities such as falling and lying on floor.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Ariyamehr Rezaei, Alessandro Mascheroni, Michael C. Stevens, Reza Argha, Michela Papandrea, Alessandro Puiatti, Nigel H. Lovell
Summary: As the population ages, wearable devices offer a solution for unobtrusively detecting falls. The millimeter-wave radar technology was used in this study to collect data from healthy young volunteers. Different classifiers, including multilayer perceptron, random forest, k-nearest neighbor, and support vector machine, were applied to the extracted features. Additionally, a convolutional neural network based on deep learning was proposed. Results showed that the random forest classifier achieved the best accuracy, and the CNN model performed slightly better, suggesting the feasibility of using mmWave radar for unobtrusive fall detection.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Shaheen Hasmat, Nigel H. Lovell, Tsu-Hui (Hubert) Low, Jonathan R. Clark
Summary: Facial nerve paralysis (FNP) can lead to corneal exposure due to lack of blinking, but the implantable solution called Bionic lid implant for natural closure (BLINC) solves this problem by using an electromagnetic actuator and an eyelid sling. This study focuses on the device's biocompatibility and describes its evolution through prototypes to address these issues. The key components of the device include the actuator, electronics with energy storage, and an induction link for wireless power transfer. Testing in synthetic or cadaveric models ensures the final prototype is suitable for acute and chronic animal trials.
MEDICAL ENGINEERING & PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Yuan Wei, Han Wang, Amr Al Abed, Reem M. Almasri, Xinyue Lei, Josiah Firth, Leonardo Silvestri, Francois Ladouceur, Torsten Lehmann, Nigel H. Lovell
Summary: This study proposes a design for a bi-directional optical-electrode or 'optrode' that can interface with peripheral nerves and brain-machine interfaces. The principle of operation is explained, including the ability to provide biphasic stimulus and charge balancing functionalities. The prototype chip is fabricated, characterized, and tested both in vivo and ex vivo, successfully demonstrating its capability to stimulate and record from the rabbit sciatic nerve. The experiment also validates the charge-balancing effect of a discrete component circuit.
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Yuyang Xie, Peijun Qin, Tianruo Guo, Amr Al Abed, Nigel H. Lovell, David Tsai
Summary: A computational toolkit was developed to create nerve stimulation models and study fiber responses under different electrode arrangements and stimulation waveforms. The toolkit allows bi-directional transfer of results and provides an agile and efficient design method for improving the design of intrafascicular implants.
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Kefan Zhu, Phuoc Thien Phan, Bibhu Sharma, James Davies, Mai Thanh Thai, Trung Thien Hoang, Chi Cong Nguyen, Adrienne Ji, Emanuele Nicotra, Hung Manh La, Tat Thang Vo-Doan, Hoang-Phuong Phan, Nigel H. Lovell, Thanh Nho Do
Summary: This paper presents a smart textile-actuated spine assistance robotic exosuit (SARE) that seamlessly conforms to the back and allows for free movement, while also monitoring and rectifying human posture. Experimental results with human subjects show that the SARE can effectively reduce muscle strain, electromyography signals, and metabolic energy cost associated with repetitive lifting tasks.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Fiona L. Knapman, E. Myfanwy Cohen, Tom Kulaga, Nigel Lovell, Leszek Lisowski, Simon Mcmullan, Peter G. R. Burke, Lynne E. Bilston
Summary: This study proposes a novel optogenetics-based therapy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and demonstrates its feasibility using a rodent model. The therapy involves stimulating upper airway muscle contractions in response to light. The results show that muscle-specific promoter-driven optogenetic muscle activation can effectively restore muscle activity and induce airway dilation.
Article
Oncology
Reza Ghamsari, Joseph Rosenbluh, A. Vipin Menon, Nigel H. Lovell, Hamid Alinejad-Rokny
Summary: Enhancers serve as logic gates of gene expression regulation and their malfunction is associated with various diseases. The functional validation of enhancer elements is therefore crucial in genomics research. Recent advancements in technology have enabled researchers to perturb enhancers and examine their impact on nearby gene expression. This review summarizes the progress made in experimental and computational methods, providing researchers with promising tools to uncover enhancer-phenotype relationships and gain mechanistic insights into diseases.
Review
Engineering, Biomedical
Reem M. Almasri, Francois Ladouceur, Damia Mawad, Dorna Esrafilzadeh, Josiah Firth, Torsten Lehmann, Laura A. Poole-Warren, Nigel H. Lovell, Amr Al Abed
Summary: Optrode arrays utilize light to modulate biological tissues and transduce bioelectrical signals into the optical domain. This review provides an overview of devices and material systems that use light for electrophysiology recording and stimulation.
APL BIOENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Chi Cong Nguyen, Timotius Teh, Mai Thanh Thai, Phuoc Thien Phan, Trung Thien Hoang, James Davies, Hoang-Phuong Phan, Chun H. Wang, Nigel H. Lovell, Thanh Nho Do
Summary: Minimally invasive surgery has been effective for cardiovascular diseases and gastrointestinal cancers. Soft robotic catheters using soft materials have gained attention for their ability to navigate complex anatomical structures. However, current systems have limitations due to rigid mechanisms and insufficient forces. New soft robotic catheters with bidirectional bending motion and spiral shapes have been introduced to address these challenges. They offer quicker and more accurate manipulation for cardiac and GI interventions, enhancing patient outcomes.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL ROBOTICS AND BIONICS
(2023)