Biomimetic framework for product concept generation

• Main Author: Chee, Jun Kang.
• Other Authors: Chen Chun-Hsien
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Manufacturing::Product engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40807
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This project proposes a design methodology that provides guidelines for designers to get biomimetic solutions for a design problem. It first summarises and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of past studies that attempt to generate methods and processes to generate ideas from biology into engineering solutions. The project then next determines the general patterns of biomimetic processes, which include generalised processes, strategies to provide consistent biological analogies as well as the structuring of biological descriptions in the databases. Thereafter, the project proposes 3 main stages for the biomimetic framework and integrates the strengths of past studies into the respective stages. The stages are problem preparation, structuring of biological descriptions inside database and idea extraction. The proposed framework also consists of iterative loops among the stages to ensure the designer obtain a satisfactory solution for each sub-function of the main function of the design problem or suggest alternative solutions that can best solve the sub-functions. Functional modelling is also proposed in the framework to facilitate comparison and understanding of problem and solution. A design problem is used to illustrate the framework and future work to improve the framework is also proposed in the final chapter.