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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction

This chapter presents the work reported in the field of bio-mimicry based on

relevant literature. Firstly, the evolution of the field and related terminologies are

presented. Then the literature related to the application of bio-mimicry in various

fields is discussed in brief. Besides, as the present research is aimed to address

business management issues, a separate section is dedicated to show the application of

bio-mimicry in the management of business organization.

2.2. Evolution of Nature inspired design

Although it may not be possible to determine the true origins of Nature inspired

design, there are converging paths in recent history. One of the early examples of bio-

mimicry was the study of birds to enable human flight. Although never successful in

creating a "flying machine", Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a keen observer of

the anatomy and flight of birds, and made numerous notes and sketches on his

observations as well as sketches of "flying machines" [272]. The Wright Brothers,

who succeeded in flying the first heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903, derived inspiration

from observations of pigeons in flight [168]. However, it was recognized in the early

to mid-20th century at the forefront of scientific research when the scientific

knowledge about Nature increased. By the mid-20th century, terms like “bio-

mimetics” and “bionics” emerged as descriptors for nature inspired design (Table

2.1). These and other terms like “bio-mimicry”, “biologically inspired design”, and

“bio-inspired design” are now largely considered to be synonymous.

Furthermore, Norbert Weiner popularized the social implications of cybernetics,

drawing analogies between automatic systems (such as a regulated steam engine) and

human institutions in his best-selling “The Human Use of Human Beings :

Cybernetics and Society” [329, 366, 388]. The ideas are also related to the biological

work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy in ‘General Systems Theory’. In 1943 a

neurophysiologist named Warren McCulloch and a mathematician named Walter Pitts

worked on artificial neural network which is a self learning system that are modeled

from interconnected system of cells (called “neurons”) in the human brain. Together

19

they developed a simple neural network using electrical circuits and wrote a landmark

paper “A Logical Calculus immanent in Nervous Activity” [214]. They are recognized

the pioneers in the field of Cybernetics.

Table 2.1: Evolution of various terminologies in the field of Nature inspired learning

Terminology Conceived by Year

Bionics Jack Steele 1960

Biomimetic Otto Schmitt 1969

Biomimcry Janine Benyus 1997

The subject of copying, imitating, and learning from biology was coined ‘Bionics’

by Jack E. Steele, of the US Air Force in 1960 at a meeting at Wright-Patterson Air

Force Base in Dayton, Ohio [352]. The term was constructed from the Greek word

“bion” meaning a unit of life with an emphasis on function rather than form

(“morphon”) and “ics” being a common suffix of disciplinary studies as in

mathematics and physics. He defined the term as:

“The discipline of using principles derived from living systems in solution of

design problems.” [313]

Besides, the word “bio-mimetics” is credited to Otto Schmitt, a man of varied

learning in 1969 [290]. He believed that fundamental biological phenomena can be

understood in relatively simple physical and chemical terms by quantitative

biophysical methods [155]. Schmitt is known as the inventor of the Schmitt trigger,

which is an electric circuit used to eliminate superimposed noise from an input signal

and transforms it into a series of rectangular pulses. This invention was an example

simulating signal processing taking place in the nervous system [37]. He spent much

time contributing to the field of “biophysics”. His pioneering paper in this field is

“The Emerging Science of Biophysics”. Though by 1957 he had conceived what

would be later known as “bio-mimetics” but the word made its first appearance in the

dictionary in 1974 with the following definition:

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“The study of the formation, structure, or function of biologically produced

substances and materials (as enzymes or silk) and biological mechanism and

processes (as protein synthesis or photosynthesis) especially for the purpose of

synthesizing similar products by artificial mechanisms which mimic natural ones.”

[155]

The term ‘bio-mimicry’ appeared as early as 1982 but it was popularized by

scientist and author Janine Benyus in her 1997 book Bio-mimicry: Innovation

Inspired by Nature. Janine Benyus is known as the founder of the Bio-mimicry

movement. Her dedication to biomimcry led her to found two organizations dedicated

to advancing Nature inspired design-the Bio-mimicry Guild (1998) and the

Biomimcry Institute (2005). She and her organizations have become quite influential

as advisors to many commercial, educational, and governmental organizations. Bio-

mimicry is defined in the book as a:

"New science that studies Nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration

from these designs and processes to solve human problems". [37]

Table 2.2: Definitions of bio-mimicry and related terminology

Term Definition

Application of engineering principles and tools, e.g., physics,

mathematics, analysis and synthesis, to solve problems in life

sciences, and may involve the integration of biological and

engineering systems [299].

Bioengineering,

biological engineering,

biotechnical

engineering

Application of mechanical principles, e.g., mechanics, to study and

model the structure and function of biological systems [299].

Biomechanics

Application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical

field, e.g., design and manufacture of medical devices, artificial

organs, limbs, etc [299].

Biomedical

engineering

Term used by Otto Schmitt to mean both: applying physical

sciences to solve problems in biological sciences, and biologists’

approach to problems in physical sciences/engineering [299].

Biophysics

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Table 2.2: Definitions of bio-mimicry and related terminology

Term Definition

Application of biological function and mechanics to machine design

[353]. However, a 1970s television series, “Bionic Woman”, about

a human with electromechanical implants, also gives ‘bionic’ the

connotation of ‘biological + electronics,’ or use of electronic

devices to replace damaged limbs and organs [299].

Bionics

Used in title of paper by Schmitt, and defined as, the ‘study of

formation, structure, or function of biologically produced

substances and materials (as enzymes or silk) and biological

mechanisms and processes (as protein synthesis or photosynthesis)

especially for the purpose of synthesizing similar products by

artificial mechanisms which mimic natural ones’

Bio-mimetics

[155].

Synonymous with bio-mimetics to mean emulating natural models,

systems, and processes to solve human problems [299].

Bio-mimesis, Bio-

mimicry, Biognosis,

Bio-inspiration, Bio-

mimetic design, Bio-

analogous design,

Biologically inspired

design

Neo-Bionics Neo-Bionics can be defined as innovation by “computational

inspiration.” Neo-bionics utilizes Nature’s “optimization” processes

as the computational strategy for a computer-aided design

“optimization”. Some of the familiar biologically inspired

optimization techniques include: Genetic algorithms, particle

swarm optimization, simulated annealing, evolutionary structural

optimization, bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization, soft

kill option.

Cybernetics Bar-Cohen [24], described cybernetics as the science of reverse

engineering of Nature to examine it in great detail to gain an

understanding of Nature’s designs, functions, and operational

procedures and thereby facilitate bionic or bio-mimicry innovations.

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Table 2.2: Definitions of bio-mimicry and related terminology

Term Definition

Pseudo-mimicry Pseudo-mimicry is related to technology developments or

innovative concepts that are not directly inspired by Nature but

have similar but unrelated functions. e.g. the skin-stringer design of

the damselfly wing and the honeycomb design of wasp’s nest are

used in the design of modern aircraft [24].

Table 2.2 shows definitions of bio-mimicry and various related terms. Bio-

mimicry, bionics, and Nature inspired design have now been established as near

synonymous terms that describe a concept where designers use the natural world as a

source of innovation. There are, however, several ways that this innovation can be

mined and applied to human designs. Benyus has described three ways of emulating

Nature’s creation as shown in Figure 2.1: (a) Nature as Model, (b) Nature as Measure,

and (c) Nature as Mentor [37]. These aspects may guide a designer, harnessing Nature

as a source of innovation.

Figure 2.1: Ways of emulating Nature’s creation [37]

‘Nature as Model’ is an interesting aspect that establishes Nature as a database of

design ideas. ‘Nature as Measure’ is a practical aspect that forces a designer to ask

questions about the designs they do create rather than just mimicking. ‘Nature as

Mentor’ promotes the first two aspects of bio-mimicry. In addition the application of

bio-mimicry fosters two procedures- Biology-to-design (solution driven approach)

and Design to- biology (problem driven approach) as shown in Figure 2.2 [157, 242].

Nature

Model Measure Mentor

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Figure 2.2: Approaches and levels of bio-mimicry [111]

However, as the ‘design languages’ in biology and engineering differ greatly,

several researchers are working on methods and databases to facilitate the transfer of

knowledge from biology to design and engineering [287, 316]. For instance

AskNature is an online, open-source database of the Bio-mimicry Institute which lists

organisms and their biological principles by function [341].

Figure 2.3: Bio-mimicry Life’s principles circle [43]

Problem based approach"Top-Down"

Solution based approach"Bottom-Top"

1. design problem2. search for biological analogies3. identification of appropriate principles4. abstraction, detachment from biological model5. testing, analysis and feedback

Environment Community Organism

Contextual fitResponse to changeAdaptationManagement

InteractionHierarchyCommunicationTeam management

Form & structureGrowthFunction & behaviourMotion

6. design 5. problemtechnicalimplementation4. abstarction, detachment from biological model3. understanding the principles2. biomechanics, functional morphology & anatomy1. biological research

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Apart from such databases with specific solutions from Nature, research is being

carried out on identifying more general design principles from the field of biology and

ecology [52, 265, 378]. In this regard, Life’s Principles have been developed by the

Bio-mimicry Institute (Figure 2.3) which is basically design lessons from Nature.

These principles are based on the fact that life on earth is interconnected and

interdependent. It is subject to the same set of operating conditions and lead to

evolution of a set of strategies that have sustained over 3.8 billion years. Thereafter,

life integrates and optimizes these strategies to create conditions conducive to life. By

learning from these deep design lessons, we can model innovative strategies, evaluate

our designs against these sustainable benchmarks, and allow ourselves to be mentored

by Nature’s genius using Life’s Principles as our inspirational ideals.

Furthermore, the Bio-mimicry Institute has also developed ‘Design Spiral’ (Figure

2.4) which gives a method for applying Bio-mimicry in the design process:

Figure 2.4: Bio-mimicry design spiral [341]

2.3. Biologically inspired technologies and mechanisms

Nature is like a vast laboratory where experiments are made and through

evolution, the results are implemented, self maintained, and continually evolved to

address the changing conditions. While performing experiments Nature involves all

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the fields of science and engineering like physics, chemistry, mechanics, material

science, mobility, control, sensors and many others. The process takes place on large

scale levels ranging from nano and micro (bacteria and viruses) to macro and mega

(including humans, elephants, and whales). These processes are worth understanding

and are proved to be insightful for almost all areas of research. Efforts have always

been made by humans to use Nature as a model for innovation and problem solving.

Systematic studies of Nature are being made more intensively in recent years to

understand Nature’s capabilities and for applying more sophisticated capabilities in

various fields [24, 37, 352]. The emerging field of bio-mimetics allows mimicking

biology or Nature to develop nano-materials, nano-devices and processes. Table 2.3

shows few popular inventions of bio-mimetics.

Table 2.3: Popular examples of bio-mimetic products

Human Need Nature’s Example Bio-mimetic solution

Builders wanted a

cheaper means of

cooling large buildings.

Certain African termite mounds

must maintain a constant

temperature of 87 degrees Celsius

(189 degrees Fahrenheit) in order

for the fungus crop to survive. To

achieve this, they construct air

vents that constantly move air

throughout the mound, cooling or

heating it to the same temperature

as the mound itself.

Architects and engineers are

building several large office

complexes that mimic the

termite approach to temperature

control [157].

Auto manufacturers

wanted to develop an

anti-collision system.

Locusts avoid running into each

other in swarms by using highly

evolved eyes that allow these

insects to see in several directions

simultaneously.

Automobile designers

mimicked the locusts' vision

when developing sensors that

detect movement directly

surrounding a car and warn

drivers of impending crashes

[24].

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Table 2.3: Popular examples of bio-mimetic products

Human Need Nature’s Example Bio-mimetic solution

Health workers wanted

a way to store vaccines

without refrigeration.

The African resurrection plant

completely dries out during yearly

droughts and then revives itself

when the rain returns. The plants

contain a polyphenol that protects

cell membrane damage during

dehydration.

Researchers are seeking a way

to use these to preserve living

vaccines through dehydration

[354].

Transportation: West

Japan Railway

Company had a noise

problem with one of

their train, the fastest

one in the world.

Kingfisher, a bird which drives

from air into water with very little

splash.

The train got quieter and uses

15% less electricity even while

the train travels 10% faster [37,

307].

Toxics: Cleaning with

minimum use of

chemicals.

Lotus leaf, one of the most water

repellent leaves that are

microscopically rough to trap a

maze of air which water droplet

float on and as a result cleans a

leaf.

It leads to a new generation of

paint, glass and fabric finishes

all to minimize the use of

chemical or laborious cleaning

[378, 394].

Energy: Creating

efficient wind power.

Humpback whale though looks big

and heavy but swims very fast.

A Company named Whale

Power has used this in

designing wind turbines to

increase their efficiency and to

improve safety and

performance of airplanes, fans

and other similar technology

[24].

Medicine: How to heal

ourselves.

Researchers who were watching

chimpanzees discovered how they

behaved when ill and how

chimpanzees seek out plant

Veronia genus.

Chemicals found in plant

Vernoria genus have shown

promising results in treating

various parasites in humans

such as pinworm, hookworm

and giardia [37].

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Table 2.3: Popular examples of bio-mimetic products

Human Need Nature’s Example Bio-mimetic solution

Architecture: Eastgate

building in Zimbabwe

was created to reduce

energy usage so as to be

sustainable.

Termites are able to keep the

temperature in their nest within

one degree.

They designed hooded

windows, variable thickness

walls and light colored paints

for passive cooling structure.

By doing so Eastgate uses 90%

less energy for ventilation than

conventional building of its size

[37].

Human safety:

EvoLogics, a company

working to improve the

quality of safety

equipment that will tell

people that tsunami is

on its way to land.

Dolphin’s technique of

communicating and processing

sound information accurately.

An instrument is developed that

can provide as early warning

about tsunamis reliably [37].

Industrial design A tree works to maximize its

strength and minimizes its stress,

by adding material and arrange the

fibres where needed while bones

remove material where it is not

needed.

Claus Matteck, an engineer has

created software called “Soft

Kill Option” that uses the

information gathered about the

trees and bones to optimize

strength and minimize the use

of materials in industrial design

[37].

In the present study, literature on the applications of bio-mimicry is categorized

into 10 areas. First nine applications are pertinent to the field of bio-mimetics wherein

biological principles, rules, concepts and mechanisms are pursued by scientists to

inspire new engineering possibilities, including manufacturing, mechanisms, material,

processes and algorithms. Last shows the application of bio-mimicry in the field of

business management.

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2.3.1. Artificial intelligence

AI is the branch of computer science that studies the computational requirements

for tasks such as perception, reasoning, and learning to allow the development of

systems that perform these capabilities [7, 203, 274,]. AI is a very useful application

of bio-mimetics which involves using artificial intelligence algorithm to provide

essential control potentials such as knowledge capture, representation and reasoning,

reasoning under uncertainty, planning, vision, face and feature tracking, language

processing, mapping and navigation, natural language processing, and machine

learning [25, 191]. Table 2.4 compiles important applications of bio-mimetics in the

field of artificial intelligence.

2.3.2. Robotics

The term robot refers to a bio-mimetic machine with humanlike features and

functions that consists of electromechanical mechanisms [27]. Robotics suggests a

machine, equipped with certain degree of intelligence and is capable of manipulating

objects and sensing its environment [25, 26, 27]. The industry is increasingly

benefiting from the advances in robotics and related biologically inspired automation.

Table 2.4 gathers important applications of bio-mimetics in the field of robotics.

2.3.3. Artificial and bio-mimetic materials

Structures can be made more effective by using materials with Nature’s traits of

self-healing, self-replication, re-configurability, chemical balance, robustness and

multi-functionality. Therefore, learning how to develop biologically inspired materials

can make our choices wider and improve our ability to create recyclable materials

which would also help in protecting the environment. Nevertheless, mimicking

Nature’s materials have benefited humans in many other ways like, development of

more lifelike prosthetics as well as artificial hips, teeth, and structural support of

bones etc [27] (Refer Table 2.4 for more examples).

2.3.4. Bio-inspired flight

The large numbers of flying-capable species are evidence, that Nature has

extensively experimented with aerodynamics and has been very successful [27]. This

has inspired humans to develop flying machines.

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2.3.5. Biosensors

Sensors are critical part of every system which monitors their functions and permit

required response to the changing conditions. The sensors of vision, smell, hear and

taste is increasingly being mimicked (refer Table 2.4). The eye is mimicked by the

camera, the whiskers of rodents are mimicked as collision avoidance sensors, and the

acoustic detectors imitate the sonar in bats [27, 30, 189]. Besides electric nose and

tongue has been applied for detection of illegal drugs, biological or medical assays,

quality assurance of food and pharmaceuticals, environmental monitoring, explosive

detection, and replacements for human tastes and smell testers [386].

2.3.6. Underwater operations

Inspiration for operating in water has many marine biology models [27]. Invention

of fins has been useful for swimmers and divers in significantly enhancing their

performance. In fact the design of watercrafts has been enhanced by improving the

understanding and development of the related analytical tools. This has also supported

bio-mimetic applications related to hydrodynamics and aerodynamics [120]. Refer

Table 2.4 for significant applications of bio-mimetics for water operations.

2.3.7. Bio-inspired design

Bio-inspired design and the broader field of design-by-analogy have been the

basis of numerous innovative designs throughout history. Many successful products

have been invented by this approach or way of designing, drawing on form, function,

and process-based inspiration from biology [37] dating back to the 19th century,

including barbed wire, tiffany lamps, [37], and many more.

2.3.8. Vision and colors

Colors of the fur of animals, feathers of birds, flowers and plants have been a

source of inspiration for photonic applications, including solar cell coatings, paints

etc. Also, the compound eyes of insects (flies, butterflies, wasps, etc.) have inspired

the development of wide field-of-view devices (such as cameras), endoscopes, bio-

optical sensors etc [193].

2.3.9. Manufacturing solutions

Principles of bio-mimicry can even apply to the way businesses manage their

supply chains, quality control etc. Inspirations have been derived from protein

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synthesis process of animal cell to suggest solutions to various problems involved in

manufacturing [303].

2.3.10. Business management

Business organizations operating in a dynamic environment can also emulate

Nature’s principles. They can also learn and derive solutions to most of their routine

conflicts and dilemmas and untraditional problems from the principles and systems

observed in Nature. Such emulation of Nature’s genius for organizational structures,

processes and people-behavior can be better described as ‘bio-inspired’ rather than

bio-mimetic, as it is not limited to scientific extrapolations and copying Nature but

also metaphorical and behavioral based inspiration. Major work done in the field of

management inspired from Nature has been compiled in Table 2.4.

Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

1. Artificial

Intelligence

• Dynamic server allocation for internet housing

inspired by forager allocation in honey bee colonies

[230]

• Develop a security systems and anti-virus software

inspired by immune systems. [113, 269]

• A human body inspired modular hierarchical structure

to plan the sit-to-stand transfer under varying

environmental conditions [280]

• Computational sustainability [135]

• Fuzzy modeling inspired by ant behavior [213, 273]

• Computer vision inspired by the human brain [137]

• A cell-based programming model for producing

robust, scalable and self-healing software systems

[129]

• An artificial neural network based model to classify

the customers into various categories for decision

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Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

making [222]

• Analyze molecular communication inside human body

for engineering practical communication techniques

for nanonetworks [209]

• Design of analog circuits for Artificial Neural

Networks (ANNs) controllers [7]

2. Robotics • Review of several cases of bio-mimetic robot designs

[25, 33]

• Study of the affect of nodding and blinking by a robot

affects people’s conversation with it [270]

• Review of research on manipulators, grasping devices

and locomotion inspired by many organism including

mammals, reptiles, insects [342, 360]

• Design of micro robots that can walk on water

mimicking the locomotion of the basilisk lizard [121]

• Design of a hexapod robot based on insects [49]

• Develop algorithms for controlling robot teams

inspired by group behavior of ants [38]

• Develop a methodology for autonomous decision

making of agents in a dynamic environment inspired

by the Nature of human behavior, psychology and

brain studies [370]

• Review of design, development and evaluation of a

high speed camera head inspired from human eye to

achieve human-like quick eye movements and image

processing for intelligent mobile robots [348]

• Study of bio-inspired robots which are capable to

throw objects into predefined positions within a given

3D-space [124]

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Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

• Conceptual design for hybrid robots [112]

• Study of human musculo-skeletal for improving robot

design improvement [328]

• Study of bio-inspired and brain controlled intelligent

robotic system [105]

• Develop a fast simulated annealing algorithm for

automatic object recognition by a navigating robot

[41]

• Describe dynamical systems that are used to control

the locomotion of bio-inspired robots and simulation

of an insect-like hexapod robot [15]

• Analyze control of underwater robots [13, 18, 28]

• Design and control of legged robots inspired by

principles followed by insects [33]

• Improved locomotion of robots [84]

• Design of underwater robots [120, 259]

3. Artificial and

Bio-mimetic

Materials

• Chemistry behind bio-inspired material [8, 108]

• Design of bio-inspired material [126, 194, 335]

• Inorganic films [4]

• Stimuli responsive polymers [63, 176]

• Non adhesive surfaces [165]

• Plant based bio-mimetic research [94, 126, 190, 204,

260, 337, 335, 356]

• Uses of bio-materials as synthetic replacements

for biological tissues, designing materials for

specific medical applications, and for new applications

such as diagnostics and array technologies [194]

4. Bio-inspired

flight

• Wright Flyer’s control system is inspired by bird’s

wings [355]

33

Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

• Birdman flying sport suit inspired from flying squirrel

[1]

• A bird like flying device with flapping wings [292]

• A flying mechanism that mimics bird’s wagging of

body and tail to reach significant swimming speed

[201, 216]

• Develop morphing airplane wings inspired by wing

adjustment by birds during flight [82, 380]

• Anti-G fluid-pressurized pilot suit inspired by the

dragonfly [169]

• Research on smooth landing inspired by seeds of the

Tipuana tipu which have an aerodynamic shape for

dispersal by the wind [249, 338]

• Design of a Mars rover inspired by tumbleweed [12,

375]

• Development of a model for a plate-beam system to

demonstrate a bio-inspired flexible wing [262, 263]

5. Bio-sensors • Develop a biologically-inspired signal sound analyzer

(BISSA) [153]

• Design and development of a high speed binocular

camera head [348]

• Use of body as a medium and source of inspiration to

provide long term, continuous sensing and monitoring

[200, 316]

• Studied capability of bees, turtles, and birds to

navigate without maps [37]

• A high-frequency transmitter inspired from bat [37]

• Auditory sensors inspired from elephants and whales

[336], bats and owls [196] which can sense low

34

Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

frequency sounds over long distances

• Bio-mimetic echolocation inspired from dolphin

auditory systems [237].

• Bio-mimetic auditory wave sensors inspired from

hearing mechanisms of various biological species

[27]).

• Bio-mimetic mechanosensors [317, 386]

• A bio-mimetic sensors based on the electroreception

of electric fish [291]

• Electric tongues for environment monitoring based on

sensor arrays and pattern recognition [189]

• Bio-inspired body sensor network [200]

• Bio-mimetic sensors to quantify taste (electronic

tongue) and smell (electronic nose) [344]

• A control scheme inspired by human memory [309]

6. Underwater

operations

• Underwater bio-mimetic vehicles [389, 390]

• Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that

mimics lamprey [84], tuna [9, 28, 390], and

dolphins[389]

• Conventional Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

(AUV) designs equipped with bio-inspired flapping

propulsions [48, 119, 198, 199, 202, 224]

• Mimicry of scuba gear-less whales and penguins dive

[37]

7. Design

solutions

• Sustainable construction ideas [266]

• Study of design of Eiffel’s tower which is inspired by

bone structure [23].

• Study of vapour barriers, bio-inspired wastewater

treatment, bacteria catalyzed concretes; termite

35

Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

inspired cooling system, and carpets that mimic a

forest floor [215].

• Study of Brisbane tunnel's canopy structure that

mimics trees and China Winter Olympics that mimics

the bird nest [161].

• Study of artificial and synthetic aggregates that mimic

the natural coarse aggregate [127, 158, 304, 323, 334]

8. Vision and

colors

• Research to understand change of skin pattern by

chameleons and cuttlefish which blend instantly with

their surroundings [37]

• Study of illumination of algae bodies by combining

various chemicals and the way algae blooms stored

water [245, 342]

• Mimicking metallic sheen of beetles [345]

• Study of light detection photoreceptors and imaging

systems in Nature [383]

• Review of evolution of the eye and visual system

[145]

• Review of anatomical and functional diversity in

animal eyes [193]

9. Manufacturin

g solutions

• Lessons of supply chain sustainability excellence

using a bio-mimetic perspective of protein

biosynthesis [303]

• Study of supply chain excellence using the protein

synthesis process [302]

• Analysis of protein synthesis in a cell as a production

process. The process has some lessons for improved

supply chain management in terms of push pull

balancing of the system, environment efficiency,

36

Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

targeted distribution and inventory optimization [218]

• Study on a quality control approach that utilizes

immunological principles as a means of developing a

mathematical framework behind self-correcting

methodology [367]

10. Business

management

• Analyze behavior of social insects like ants, bees,

wasps, termites, etc. to solve many problems inherent

to social organization [376]

• Recommend organizations to co-create their

environment, similar to organism [225]

• Analyze social organizations as living systems and

recommends them to imitate the principles of living

system [286]

• Similar to biological organisms, organizations should

have sensors to inform them of threats and

opportunities [377]

• Business organizations can be structured and managed

more effectively inspired from intelligent human

organizations created by Nature [197]

• Study organismic metaphor of organizations in

relation to corporate communication [223]

• Compare medical sciences and information security

system [57]

• Compare organizational workplace to human body and

employees to its cells [326]

• Recommend that biological metaphor can be used to

explain working of organizations and; compared the

diseases of the body to inefficiencies in the

organization [379]

37

Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

• Discuss that business enterprises can very well

flourish and be sustainable by replicating the Nature

[247]

• Develop a model to enable the flow of information

inspired from white crowned sparrows [281]

• Applications of principles based on swarm intelligence

in organization management study [27, 346, 347]

• Discuss the applications collective decision making in

nest-site selection by social insects when their colony

divides or nest is damaged [125]

• A model based on task allocation in swarms [231]

• Leadership lessons can be learned from flocks of birds

and swarms of fish [281]

• Study of bees and plant pollinator ecosystem to predict

how networks in Nature can be used to strengthen

other domains [278]

• Suggest a new approach to strategic planning inspired

by human body [381]

• Compare bionic supply chain of food and life support

inputs to the human body with the supply chain

management [358]

• Analogy between bio-immune system and competitive

bidding in auction [238]

• Analogies between human organism and quality

management system [359]

• Study of hierarchies in natural systems [325]

• Suggest proactive human body inspired approach for

problem solving against reactive approach followed by

today’s organizations [227]

38

Table 2.4: Applications of bio-mimicry in various fields

S. No. Broad field

of study Research Focus

• Derive analogies between terrorist organization and

cancer in living organisms [387]

• Study of self organization in biological systems[61]

2.4. Bio-mimicry and business management

Until now, very scarce work has been done in the field of bio-inspired

management systems. Few researchers have compared various organisms (including

humans) as the metaphor of organization and have made recommendations based on

such comparisons. But altogether very scarce work is done wherein Nature’s

principles have been applied for organizational transformation.

As exemplified by the innovations described in the preceding section, bio-

mimicry mainly has been applied to product design, manufacturing, green chemistry,

structural planning and architecture. However, Nature’s wisdom can also inspire and

inform organizational transformation. The purpose is to help companies to achieve

and sustain competitive advantage in a dynamically changing environment which

requires sound and novel strategies. According to Etzold and Buswick [114], a good

way of broadening the way one thinks about strategy is to bridge the gap between

business and other disciples. Therefore, in today’s fast changing global environment,

business leaders should use insights from every field in hand – like history,

philosophy, anthropology, dance, or any other academic field. In this regard

‘metaphors’ are useful device which allow researchers to focus on organizational

problems from several angles [64]. “Metaphors represent the quintessence of

thought” ; “they have the ability to shape the pattern of our ideas and the character of

our lives” [173]. Metaphors are used to enable and enhance our understanding of the

world by referring to “something unfamiliar in terms of something familiar” [172].

According to Grant et.al [139] managers should understand the power of

metaphors and integrate them as a basis to the study of organizations. According to

Cacciaguidi-Fahy and Cunningham [59], the use of metaphors can be viewed from

39

three perspective: a) the role and purpose of metaphors from a linguistic perspective

which suggest figurative comparisons and which provides additional information

about the structure, content, and meaning of the particular situation” [279]; b) the use

of metaphors in organizational change by facilitating a variety of analyses within the

organization such as ‘decision-making, leadership, organization development, policy,

strategy, information technology, organizational culture, organization design and

production management’ [240]; and c) the use of metaphor in competitive strategy

which encourages different ways of thinking and enables to “focus upon, explain and

influence different aspects of complex issues [29]. Furthermore, the organization

theory literature shows that there are many different metaphors that can be used to

look at organizations. Morgan [226] discusses eight metaphors that act as lens through

which one may view an organization. The eight metaphors include machine,

organism, brain, culture, political system, psychic prison, change and transformation,

and instrument of domination [226]. The choice of metaphor greatly influences how

one perceives organizational problems and the solutions sought. Moreover, each

metaphor creates insight in some areas of organizational practice while obscuring

other aspects of organizational management. However, unlike other metaphors the

organism metaphor, the Nature’s genius has been especially pronounced among

advocates of the systems perspective in organization theory. The reason is that both

are open and complex systems made up of parts existing in close interrelationship.

Because they are like this, they can only be studied as wholes. Besides, the

ultimate aim of both systems is to ensure their own survival. Also as both exist in

dynamically changing environment; they have to take action in response to

environmental changes. Therefore, a business organization and a living organism both

being similar from systems perspective can be compared to find out their distinct

properties, each of which can be applied to other system in a constructive way. The

value of using metaphors and metaphorical language has been quickly recognized by

business analysts and strategists as a way to provide valuable insights into

organizations.

Such emulation of Nature’s genius for organizational structures, processes and

people behavior may be better described as ‘bio-inspired’ rather than bio-mimetic, as

it is not limited to scientific extrapolations and copying Nature but also metaphorical

and behavioral based inspiration, although perhaps still falling within the third part of

40

Benyus’ definition of Bio-mimicry: ‘Nature as mentor’. This new conceptualization

of Nature as a complex system of living organism has developed slowly and

independently among many scientists, philosophers and sociologists.

This section provides a brief account of literature related to various organism

metaphors of organization and the managerial insights derived from them. For

example researchers have compared corporate organizations with social insects to

inform managers about important lesson on design, self organization, task, labor and

resources allocation, leadership issues, information flow and decision making.

According to Wilson [376] social insects like ants, bees, wasps, termites, etc. are

uniquely qualified to influence human design. They have evolved highly integrated

societies with up to millions of members, and have solved many problems inherent to

social organization.

According to Moorman and Kreitman [225] business organizations can also learn

from new metaphors from natural world. Like the organism is part of, and largely

dependent on, its physical environment, the organization is a part of the

social/economic system. And like the organisms co-create their environment (as the

survival of an organism depends on the survival of other organism), the organizations

must work to maintain and contribute to a sustainable socio-economic environment.

They further mentions that for healthy survival, an organism must have knowledge,

ability to think, evaluate results, and remember the outcomes. So the organization like

an organism should have some sense to understand the rules of an environment. In

acting and evaluating results an organization should focus both externally and

internally.

In view of Santis [286] our social organizations are living systems and they must

imitate the principles of living system like cyclic principle in Nature, principle of

interdependence. He further argues that societal organizations must not follow

outmoded Darwin principle the ‘survival of the fittest’ but rather cooperate to co-exist

synergistically. In this paper other principles of living systems that should be followed

by societal organization are also discussed.

Winter [377] draws on comparisons between organizations and organisms and

suggests that like biological organisms, organizations should have sensors to inform

them of threats and opportunities.

41

Liang [197] reinforces the fact that the evolution of all natural systems including

the human organization is driven by intelligence created by Nature to derive its own

evolutionary and co-evolutionary dynamics. This study attempts to put in better

perspective as to how business organizations can be structured and managed more

effectively in the new economy inspired from intelligent human organizations created

by Nature.

Mitchell and Jackson [223] studied organismic metaphor of organizations in

relation to corporate communication. The paper discusses the communication between

complex organisms to suggest something to improve the internal communication

within organizations.

Buttaram [57] has compared medical sciences and information security system, as

both are concerned with the health of their respective systems. Using this biological

analogy, examination of recent medical issues can be useful in anticipating the near

term direction of the information security profession.

Szego [326] compared organizational workplace to human body and employees to

its cells to explain the importance of employees influence on efficient functioning of

the organization. She further argue that similar to human body which cannot function

properly with corrupt DNA, lazy nerves or organs, organizations cannot function with

inefficient and reluctant employees.

Witzel [379] described how Casson, Emerson and Knoeppel have used biological

metaphor to explain working of organizations and compared the diseases of the body

to inefficiencies in the organization.

Patel [247] has mentioned in his paper few differences between business and

Nature which clearly shows that natural processes are far more superior then our

traditional business approach which just talks about the short term profits and gains

ignoring it’s long term sustainability aspects. He further states that business

enterprises can very well flourish and be sustainable by replicating the Nature.

Sadish [281] has developed a model to enable the flow of information inspired

from white crowned sparrows. The pitch of the song of white-crowned sparrows in

San Francisco has become higher as the rumbling from traffic has increased in the last

forty years because a higher frequency is less likely to be masked by low-frequency

ambient noise. According to the Sadish [281], the managers are also competing like

42

sparrows with many other messages being sent to employees. The sparrow inspires

them decide that rather than sending more or louder messages to compete with the

noise, how can the managers learn that which messages could effectively penetrate

the ambient noise? Perhaps this involves tuning to the right frequency of personalized,

fun, and engaging communications.

Bar-Cohen [27] discussed the application of swarm intelligence based principles

in organizational management study. Swarm intelligence is a collective behavior of

small insects, some animals and birds to perform a task and is denoted by different

terms for different family. The autonomous agents in such groups are in some way

cooperating to achieve a global objective. Their global objective can include foraging,

constructing shelter, or serving as a defense mechanism. The apparent collective

intelligence of a swarm emerges from actions of the individual agents. A kind of self

organization emerges in these systems [347] as each bird does not take commands

from any leader bird since there is no lead bird. Hence, swarm intelligence makes it

possible to explore collective problem solving without centralized control. Therefore

many managerial lessons like decision making, group dynamics, effective team work,

etc. can be derived from principles behind swarm behavior.

Franks et al [125] discussed other potential applications of bio-mimicry by

observing collective decision making in nest-site selection by social insects when

their colony is divided or nest is damaged. They search for new nests and choose

among them and then migrate. Consensus is reached amongst them through collective

poll-like process: scouts independently discover, assess the quality of new nest and

recruit nest-mates to candidate sites, and the colony only commits to the best site once

a quorum has been reached.

Another leading bio-mimicry model based on swarm behavior is that of task

allocation which is central to the organization of work in both insect colonies and

corporate organizations. According to Nakrani and Tovey [231] bio-mimetic task

allocation is most effective when the biology matches the design challenge at hand.

For example, a honeybee colony's allocation of foragers among flower patches is

analogous to managing an internet hosting centre as both colonies and hosting centers

must maximize resource (nectar or revenue) influx from multiple sources in a variable

and unpredictable environment. Therefore, honeybee colony's allocation of foragers

43

among flower patches is an appropriate model for managing an internet hosting

centre.

Leadership lessons can be learned from flocks of birds and swarms of fishes. Each

bird does not take any commands from any leader bird since there is no lead bird.

Their movement is simply based on central coordination instructions as each

individual follows a few simple rules, such as matching the speed and average

direction of its neighbors while maintaining a minimum distance [281]. According to

him, inspired by these natural models of swarm intelligence, leadership networks

might empower their members to agree on a few simple rules that are easy for each

individual to follow, thus creating the possibility for combined efforts to emerge that

are greater than the sum of individual actions.

According to Saavedra [278], bees and business people face analogous situation.

They compete for resources, they specialize to corner their niche, and they try to

survive in changing environments. After studying bees and plant pollinator ecosystem

he argues that by identifying general principles, researchers can predict how networks

in Nature can be used to strengthen other domains. Saavedra [278] have discovered

few rules followed in Nature like broad degree distributions, high modularity, and

high nestedness that generates stability in plant-pollinator ecosystems and could be

translated to come into play in other domains.

Table 2.5: Comparison of approaches followed by businesses’ and Nature’s activities

[247]

Business Activities Nature

Linear Approach Circular Approach

Centralized Decentralized

Individualistic Cooperative

Independent Interdependent

Inflexible Adaptable

44

Moreover, literature also shows that human body is analogous to a corporate

organization where many systems are working in close co-operation with each other

to achieve the organizational goal. Table 2.5 shows few basic differences between the

two – like the conventional businesses follow linear approach characterized by

expansion in one direction in a step-by step progression, while Nature’s philosophy is

characterized by expansion in multiple directions. Also, traditional business

architecture is centralized, where authority is centered on top and various departments

are focused on themselves and working as independent silos treating things prefixed

determined and inflexible. Some researchers are working to apply the human body

principles and processes for better management of business organization, which are

summarized as follows:

Wolfe [381] has suggested a new approach to strategic planning inspired from

human body. He suggests establishing a strong organizational framework that must be

infused throughout the corporate nervous system. Additionally, a decision making

process inspired from human body must be established that allows individuals to

quickly respond to the environment in a manner consistent with the strategic

framework similar to brain that allows most of behavioral responses to occur semi-

autonomously.

Chigurala [70] proposed a different form of organizational structure inspired from

human body’s network of communication where cells; which are analogous to

employees, are loosely coupled in a hexagonal form to ensure no single point of

failure in the network. Chigurala [70] has also provided biologically inspired ways to

make an organization perfectly fit for human beings. According to him solution can

be learnt from human body organization which is built on the principle of freedom, no

bureaucracy, and no management hierarchy. Such human body inspired organization

is named ‘Body Corporate’ by him.

Vrat [358] in one of his paper brought out the analogy of bionic supply chain of

food and life support inputs to the human body with the supply chain management

particularly from the inventory theoretic point of view.

Padhi and Vrat [238] have developed an analogy of bio-immune system with

competitive bidding in auction which is then developed into a model for effective

decisions making situations under competitive or conflicting environment.

45

Vujovic et al. [359], developed analogies between human organism and quality

management system to develop a model which points crucial areas of improvement

for gaining business excellence.

In natural hierarchies the lower or less complex subsystems looks up for purpose

and the higher or complex subsystems looks down for function. The natural

hierarchies do not consider power over hierarchy as the way of organizing activities.

Organizations can lean from natural hierarchies to create a sustainable society [325].

Mueller [227] has suggested proactive human body inspired approach for problem

solving against reactive approach followed by today’s organizations. According to

him like in human body the blood system carries markers of potential disease, the

same way data carried by information systems of the organization can also act as

‘markers’ of business activity, risk and performance. He suggests organizations to

stop testing external symptoms and embrace a business health check that can provide

them a view of potential problem many months or even years before the external

evidence becomes clear. According to Mueller [227] by checking the organizational

health and risk exposure with the so called ‘blood tests’, the organizations can shift

the majority of their focus from symptoms and samples to markers and causes that

would be better for business’s long term health and at a much less severe cost.

Yilmaz [387] developed a framework based on analogies between terrorist

organization and cancer in living organisms. The developed framework explains the

emergence, structures and behaviors of terrorist organizations.

The aforesaid discussion shows that research done in the field of organization

management inspired from various creations of Nature has attracted the attention of

some researchers. But it is still in nascent stage and so much scope exists.

2.5. Research gaps

Compilation of the literature reviewed has lead to an important observation that

very meager work has been done so far towards exploring the managerial learning

from human body (Figure 2.5). Most of the human body inspired innovations are done

in the field of engineering; very less work has been done in the field of management.

Most of the researchers have viewed an organism as the metaphor of organization. In

addition, reductionist approach is followed by most researchers in emulating Nature’s

creation wherein only a part or feature of a specific organism is imitated to solve any

46

problem rather than exploring the organism holistically to harness solutions from it.

Besides, research visualizing human body holistically as a metaphor of organization is

not evidenced in the literature. However, research has been done comparing specific

parts of human body with that of organizations. Furthermore, scarce literature is

available identifying the reasons for perfections of various systems and sub-systems

in human body and also its applications in the field of management.

Figure 2.5: Representation of gaps out of literature reviewed

Applications in Engg. & tech.

Human body as a metaphor

Reasons for perfection in human body

Human body as holistic metaphor of an organization

Only a few human body parts

compared with organizations

Applications in business

management

Mimicking human body

Literature review of

bio-mimicry

Applications in Engg & tech.

Mimicking Nature’s Creations

Holistic Approach

Only a part of organism

Organism as a metaphor of business organization Applications

in business management

47

2.6. Conclusions

The chapter has reviewed the literature pertaining to bio-mimicry with a view to

study the current state of research. The available literature shows that bio-mimicry is

studied and applied to a broad range of fields including material research, product

design & innovation, inventions, systems design, architecture, communication and

mechanics etc. Bio-mimicry is an emerging field for analyzing issues on sustainability

triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social issues. Nevertheless, most of

the research shows the application of bio-mimicry in the field of engineering and

technology. Very scare work is found relating bio-mimicry to corporate management.

A need was felt to study the possible applications of bio-mimicry on management of

business organizations. This study is an effort in the direction of learning from human

body as an open system to provide insights to managing organization as a system.