The spines of pencil and lance urchins Heterocentrotus mammillatus and Phyllacanthus imperialis were studied as a model of light-weight material with high impact resistance. The complex and variable skeleton construction (“stereom”) of body and spines of sea urchins consists of highly porous Mg-bearing calcium carbonate. This basically brittle material with pronounced single-crystal cleavage does not fracture by spontaneous catastrophic device failure but by graceful failure over the range of tens of millimeter of bulk compression instead. This was observed in bulk compression tests and blunt indentation experiments on regular, infiltrated and latex coated sea urchin spine segments. Microstructural characterization was carried out using X-ray computer tomography, optical and scanning electron microscopy. The behavior is interpreted to result from the hierarchic structure of sea urchin spines from the macroscale down to the nanoscale. Guidelines derived from this study see ceramics with layered porosity as a possible biomimetic construction for appropriate applications.

Biomaterials such as bone, teeth, nacre and silk are known to have superior mechanical properties due to their specific nanocomposite structures. Here we report that the woodpecker’s tongue exhibits a novel strength and flexibility due to its special composite micro/nanostructure. The tongue consists of a flexible cartilage-and-bone skeleton covered with a thin layer tissue of high strength and elasticity. At the interface between the cartilage-and-bone skeleton and the tissue layer, there is a hierarchical fiber-typed connection. It is this special design of the tongue that makes the woodpeckers efficient in catching the insects inside trees. The special micro/nanostructures of the woodpecker’s tongue show us a potential method to enhance the interfacial connection between soft and hard material layers for bio-inspired composite system designs.

Microporous titanium carbide coating was successfully synthesized on medical grade titanium alloy by using sequential carburization. Changes in the surface morphology of titanium alloy occasioned by sequential carburization were characterized and the wettability characteristics were quantified. Furthermore, the dispersion forces were calculated and discussed. The results indicate that sequential carburization is an effective way to modify the wettability of titanium alloy. After the carburization the surface dispersion force of titanium alloy increased from 76.5 × 10⁻³ J•m⁻² to 105.5 × 10⁻³ J•m⁻², with an enhancement of 37.9 %. Meanwhile the contact angle of titanium alloy decreased from 83? to 71.5?, indicating a significant improvement of wettability, which is much closer to the optimal water contact angle for cell adhesion of 70?.

Beetle wings are very specialized flight organs consisting of the veins and membranes. Therefore it is necessary from a bionic view to investigate the material properties of a beetle wing experimentally. In the present study, we have used a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique to measure the elastic modulus of a beetle wing membrane. Specimens were prepared by carefully cutting a beetle hind wing into 3.0 mm by 7.0 mm segments (the gage length was 5 mm). We used a scanning electron microscope for a precise measurement of the thickness of the beetle wing membrane. The specimen was attached to a designed fixture to induce a uniform displacement by means of a micromanipulator. We used an ARAMISTM system based on the digital image correlation technique to measure the corresponding displacement of a specimen. The thickness of the beetle wing varied at different points of the membrane. The elastic modulus differed in relation to the membrane arrangement showing a structural anisotropy; the elastic modulus in the chordwise direction is approximately 2.65 GPa, which is three times larger than the elastic modulus in the spanwise direction of 0.84 GPa. As a result, the digital image correlation–based ARAMIS system was suc-cessfully used to measure the elastic modulus of a beetle wing. In addition to membrane’s elastic modulus, we considered the Poisson’s ratio of the membrane and measured the elastic modulus of a vein using an Instron universal tensile machine. The result reveals the Poisson’s ratio is nearly zero and the elastic modulus of a vein is about 11 GPa.

Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) can work as an actuator by applying a few voltages. A thick IPMC actuator, where Nafion-117 membrane was synthesized with polypyrrole/alumina composite filler, was analyzed to verify the equivalent beam and equivalent bimorph beam models. The blocking force and tip displacement of the IPMC actuator were measured with a DC power supply and Young’s modulus of the IPMC strip was measured by bending and tensile tests respectively. The calculated maximum tip displacement and the Young’s modulus by the equivalent beam model were almost identical to the corresponding measured data. Finite element analysis with thermal analogy technique was utilized in the equivalent bimorph beam model to numerically reproduce the force-displacement relationship of the IPMC actuator. The results by the equivalent bimorph beam model agreed well with the force-displacement relationship acquired by the measured data. It is confirmed that the equivalent beam and equivalent bimorph beam models are practically and effectively suitable for predicting the tip displacement, blocking force and Young’s modulus of IPMC actuators with different thickness and different composite of ionic polymer membrane.

Probes are the interface between microsystems and bio-cells. The ideal interface is one-to-one interface. Though various research groups have been able to establish some sort of interfaces after many years of research, they are very crude. Neurons are millions in numbers, whereas the prostheses successfully built so far have only a few hundred probes at best. Creating an ef-fective interface is still far away. Though we have micro- and nano-technologies, we couldn’t build a prosthesis with an effective resolution. Main reasons behind it are the type of probe being used and the poor design of the probe. To address this problem, we developed a methodology to design a probe and an array of probes with better resolution and less resistive donut probe. This methodology helps us to design a probe optimizing all the parameters. We presented our methodology through a design that is capable of 70 μm penetration inside the tissue. The tissue heating by our designed probe is only 0.411 ?C. We also characterized the donut probe, which could be used by any research group to design a donut probe of their specific need.

This paper presents a kinematic analysis of the locomotion of a gecko, and experimental verification of the kinematic model. Kinematic analysis is important for parameter design, dynamic analysis, and optimization in biomimetic robot research. The proposed kinematic analysis can simulate, without iteration, the locomotion of gecko satisfying the constraint conditions that maintain the position of the contacted feet on the surface. So the method has an advantage for analyzing the climbing motion of the quadruped mechanism in a real time application. The kinematic model of a gecko consists of four legs based on 7-degrees of freedom spherical-revolute-spherical joints and two revolute joints in the waist. The motion of the kinematic model is simulated based on measurement data of each joint. The motion of the kinematic model simulates the investigated real gecko’s motion by using the experimental results. The analysis solves the forward kinematics by considering the model as a combination of closed and open serial mechanisms under the condition that maintains the contact positions of the attached feet on the ground. The motions of each joint are validated by comparing with the experimental results. In addition to the measured gait, three other gaits are simulated based on the kinematic model. The maximum strides of each gait are calculated by workspace analysis. The result can be used in biomimetic robot design and motion planning.

When developing a humanoid myo-control hand, not only the mechanical structure should be considered to afford a high dexterity, but also the myoelectric (electromyography, EMG) control capability should be taken into account to fully accomplish the actuation tasks. This paper presents a novel humanoid robotic myocontrol hand (AR hand III) which adopted an underac-tuated mechanism and a forearm myocontrol EMG method. The AR hand III has five fingers and 15 joints, and actuated by three embedded motors. Underactuation can be found within each finger and between the rest three fingers (the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger) when the hand is grasping objects. For the EMG control, two specific methods are proposed: the three-fingered hand gesture configuration of the AR hand III and a pattern classification method of EMG signals based on a statistical learning algorithm – Support Vector Machine (SVM). Eighteen active hand gestures of a testee are recognized ef-fectively, which can be directly mapped into the motions of AR hand III. An on-line EMG control scheme is established based on two different decision functions: one is for the discrimination between the idle and active modes, the other is for the recog-nition of the active modes. As a result, the AR hand III can swiftly follow the gesture instructions of the testee with a time delay less than 100 ms.

Fish finders have already been widely available in the fishing market for a number of years. However, the sizes of these fish finders are too big and their prices are expensive to suit for the research of robotic fish or mini-submarine. The goal of this research is to propose a low-cost fish detector and classifier which suits for underwater robot or submarine as a proximity sensor. With some pre-condition in hardware and algorithms, the experimental results show that the proposed design has good per-formance, with a detection rate of 100 % and a classification rate of 94 %. Both the existing type of fish and the group behavior can be revealed by statistical interpretations such as hovering passion and sparse swimming mode.

In this paper a new reactive mechanism based on perception-action bionics for multi-sensory integration applied to Un-manned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) navigation is proposed. The strategy is inspired by the olfactory bulb neural activity observed in rabbits subject to external stimuli. The new UAV navigation technique exploits the use of a multiscroll chaotic system which is able to be controlled in real-time towards less complex orbits, like periodic orbits or equilibrium points, considered as perceptive orbits. These are subject to real-time modifications on the basis of environment changes acquired through a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensory system. The mathematical details of the approach are given including simulation results in a virtual en-vironment. The results demonstrate the capability of autonomous navigation for UAV based on chaotic bionics theory in com-plex spatial environments.

The effects of biomimetic designs of tine furrow opener surface on equivalent pressure and pressure in the direction of motion on opener surface against soil were studied by finite element method (FEM) simulation and the effects of these designs on tool force and power requirements were examined experimentally. Geometrical structures of the cuticle surfaces of dung beetle (Copris ochus Motschulsky) were examined by stereoscopy. The structures of the cuticle surfaces and Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) material were modeled on surface of tine furrow opener as biomimetic designs. Seven furrow openers were analyzed in ANSYS program (a FEM simulation software). The biomimetic furrow opener surfaces with UHMWPE structures were found to have lower equivalent pressure and pressure in the direction of motion as compared to the conventional surface and to the biomimetic surfaces with textured steel-35 structures. It was found that the tool force and power were increased with the cutting depth and operating speed and the biomimetic furrow opener with UHMWPE tubular section ridges showed the lowest resistance and power requirement against soil.

Four rice samples of long grain type were tested using an electronic nose (Cyranose-320). Samples of 5 g of each variety of rice were placed individually in vials and were analyzed with the electronic nose unit consisting of 32 polymer sensors. The Cyranose-320 was able to differentiate between varieties of rice. The chemical composition of the rice odors for differentiating rice samples needs to be investigated. The optimum parameter settings should be considered during the Cyranose-320 training process especially for multiple samples, which are helpful for obtaining an accurate training model to improve identification capability. Further, it is necessary to investigate the E-nose sensor selection for obtaining better classification accuracy. A re-duced number of sensors could potentially shorten the data processing time, and could be used to establish an application pro-cedure and reduce the cost for a specific electronic nose. Further research is needed for developing analytical procedures that adapt the Cyranose-320 as a tool for testing rice quality.

Inspired by the coarse-to-fine visual perception process of human vision system, a new approach based on Gaussian multi-scale space for defect detection of industrial products was proposed. By selecting different scale parameters of the Gaussian kernel, the multi-scale representation of the original image data could be obtained and used to constitute the multi-variate image, in which each channel could represent a perceptual observation of the original image from different scales. The Multivariate Image Analysis (MIA) techniques were used to extract defect features information. The MIA combined Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to obtain the principal component scores of the multivariate test image. The Q-statistic image, derived from the residuals after the extraction of the first principal component score and noise, could be used to efficiently reveal the surface defects with an appropriate threshold value decided by training images. Experimental results show that the proposed method performs better than the gray histogram-based method. It has less sensitivity to the inhomogeneous of illumination, and has more robustness and reliability of defect detection with lower pseudo reject rate.

We introduce the relationship between excess noise in Optoelectronic Coupled Devices (OCDs) and their interior defects and explain how low-frequency noise can be used to estimate their reliability. Using concepts from the biological immune system and its process of identifying invaders, we present a system for estimation of the reliability of OCDs. The system has expressions for the antigen (excess noise), lymphocyte (criterion) and the role of the lymphocyte eliminating unreliable devices. A genetic algorithm was used to estimate the components parameters of the noise spectrum for estimating the reliability of OCDs. The experimental results demonstrated that this method is reliable, adaptable and practical.