Oceanic Biomimicry: 13 Designs Inspired by the Sea
How do you design the perfect turbine blade for use underwater, or build a fleet of vehicles that can pack tightly together and navigate around obstacles in a flash? Look to nature – specifically, in this case, the astounding complexities of the sea and all of the life it contains. Architecture in the shape of shells, robotic lobsters, cars that behave like schools of fish and swimwear modeled on sharkskin are just a few biomimetic designs inspired by the ocean. Pollution-Sensing Robotic Fish (image via: gizmag ) When a team of British scientists needed to put a robot into the sea to test pollution levels, they realized that nothing would be able to navigate the waters better than a fish. So they designed a completely autonomous, wi-fi connected, life-like robotic fish equipped with chemical sensors that can located the sources of hazardous pollutants in the water. The fish, which transmit the information they collect to a control center while re-charging their batteri...