A New Inspiration in Bionic Shock Absorption Midsole Design and Engineering

Inspired by the performance of the ostrich in terms of loading and high-speed moving ability, the purpose of this study was to design a structure and material on the forefoot and heel of the middle soles of sports shoes based on the high cushioning quality of the ostrich toe pad by applying bionic engineering technology. The anatomical dissection method was used to analyze the ostrich foot characteristics. The structure and material of the bionic shock absorption midsole were designed according to the principles of bionic engineering and reverse engineering. F-Scan and numerical simulation were used to evaluate the bionic shock absorption midsole performance. The results showed that the bionic shock absorption midsole decreased the peak pressure (6.04–12.27%), peak force (8.62–16.03%), pressure–time integral (3.06–12.66%), and force–time integral (4.06–10.58%) during walking and brisk walking. In this study, the biomechanical effects to which the bionic shock absorption midsole structure was subjected during walking and brisk walking exercises were analyzed. The bionic midsole has excellent shock resistance. It is beneficial for the comfort of the foot during exercise and might reduce the risk of foot injuries during exercise.

Analysis of Mechanical Characteristics of Bionic Artificial Skin Using Different Suturing Patterns

Artificial bionic skin material is playing an increasingly important role in the field of medicine and bionic engineering and becoming a research hotspot in many disciplines in recent years. In this work, the digital moiré method was used to measure the mechanical field of the bionic skin material under different suturing conditions. Through the digital image process, the deformation characteristics and the stress distribution near the contact area between the bionic skin material and the suture were obtained and discussed. The different healing effects caused by suturing mode were further explored, which can provide mechanical guidance for wound suturing in clinical medicine.

Memristive-synapse spiking neural networks based on single-electron transistors

In recent decades, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies and bionic engineering, the spiking neural network (SNN), inspired by biological neural systems, has become one of the most promising research topics, enjoying numerous applications in various fields. Due to its complex structure, the simplification of SNN circuits requires serious consideration, along with their power consumption and space occupation. In this regard, the use of SSN circuits based on single-electron transistors (SETs) and modified memristor synapses is proposed herein. A prominent feature of SETs is Coulomb oscillation, which has characteristics similar to the pulses produced by spiking neurons. Here, a novel window function is used in the memristor model to improve the linearity of the memristor and solve the boundary and terminal lock problems. In addition, we modify the memristor synapse to achieve better weight control. Finally, to test the SNN constructed with SETs and memristor synapses, an associative memory learning process, including memory construction, loss, reconstruction, and change, is implemented in the circuit using the PSPICE simulator.

The Structure and Flexural Properties of Typha Leaves

The Typha leaf has a structure of lightweight cantilever beam, exhibiting excellent mechanical properties with low density. Especially, the leaf blade evolved high strength and low density with high porosity. In this paper, the structure of Typha leaf was characterized by microcomputed tomography (Micro-CT) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the relationship with flexural properties was analyzed. The three-point bending test was performed on leaves to examine flexural properties, which indicated that the flexural properties vary from the base to the apex in gradient. The cross-sectional geometry shape of the leaf blade presented a strong influence on the optimized flexural stiffness. The load carrying capacity of the leaf depended on the development level of the epidermal tissue, the vascular bundle, the mechanical tissue, and the geometric properties. The investigation can be the basis for lightweight structure design and the application in the bionic engineering field.

A New Approach to the Similarity Analysis in Bionic Engineering and its Applications

The similarity phenomenon exists widely in nature and similarity theory is of importance in various types of engineering problems, especially in bionic engineering. In this work,a conception of fuzzy similarity was introduced. An effective mathematical method was put forward to identify the extent of morphological similarity between two living things of the homogenous species or the heterogeneous species and quantitative analysis of the similarity degree was carried out. A computer program based on the genetic algorithm was developed to solve and optimize the numerical scaling coefficient between an original profile data and a target one. To seek the maximum fuzzy similarity degree, an object function which is the core idea in this method was built to compute the similarity coefficient according to the corresponding points in these two sample profiles. Moreover, a series of arrays from the profiles of the foreleg of praying mantis (Mantis religiosa Linnaeus) was imported into the program. The results indicated the fuzzy similarity degree of samples was considerably high, which means the shape of the praying mantiss apical claw is quite uniform. Therefore, this computation method of similarity degree is effective.

Visual Reconstruction and Analysis of the Surface of Earthworm in AVS

This paper describes a method for visual reconstruction and analysis of the surface of earthworm in AVS/Express, Advanced Visual System's new visualization development tool. The digital measurements of surfaces of the earthworm were carried out using a three-dimensional laser scanner. Detailed information on the point clouds, the scanning digital data of the surface of the earthworm were obtained by importing and analyzing those point clouds in AVS/Express. Methods and results presented in this paper proved to be potentially useful for analyzing the feature of biological prototype, optimizing the mathematical model and affording deformable physical model to bionic engineering, this would have significant implications to the research of biological coupling theory and technological creation in bionic engineering.

What is a Physicist Doing in the Jungle? Biomimetics of the Rainforest

This paper summarizes a TEDx Talk that the European physics professor Ille C. Gebeshuber, who has been living in South East Asia for nearly five years now, gave to a live audience of 800 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in July 2012. A similar talk is also given as an invited lecture at the 4thInternational Conference of Bionic Engineering in China in August 2013. The talk highlights the importance of news ways of doing science and of doing engineering that are needed to successfully address the major challenges humankind is currently facing, and how a generalistic approach synergistically combining Eastern and Western thinking might help in this respect. Biomimetics is stressed as an integrated, generalist way of learning from living nature, and as best practice example for developing new approaches that are based on understanding rather than learning by heart, with memory, reason and imagination as pillars, bridging fields of specialization and of education and thereby blending the knowledge of single isolated scientists and specialist scientist networks to a wisdom of the whole, powerful enough to help us successfully address our major problems.