Bio-inspiration

This post discuss about other ideas or inventions that was inspired by the crocodile. 

1. Flexible armor modeled from crocodiles
Taking a page from the biological playbook of animals like crocodiles, engineers have developed a type of body armor that is stronger and more flexible, thanks to its design. Crocodile are born with armor that has a natural level of elasticity and malleability, allowing them to roll into protective balls and rend themselves invulnerable from predators or other threats. Essentially, the armor is a series of hard plates embedded into the animal’s skin, assorted in a way so as to provide the most protection. In a report from Discovery News, scientists used a laser to cut glass in a similar design and used silicone glue to attach the glass plates to a rubber “skin.” The findings indicated an increase in puncture resistance of up to 70% from the unsegmented glass. The reported increase in resistance has inspired the team to take the design to products like body armor and protective coatings.

2. Design, Fabrication and Gait Planning of Alligator-inspired Robot
Legged locomotion is one of the most successful locomotion patterns found in the nature. Interest in legged walking robots over wheeled/tracked robots generated mainly because of:
a)      more efficient traversal of difficult terrains
b)      nature is the best designer hence just bio-mimic the design handed over to us by evolution
c)      more robust and durable if designed on the principles of compliant mechanism, say by using flexible links
d)      more efficient motion planning can take place as a wider range of manoeuvrability is made available.
One of the legged locomotion that the scientists have mimic is the gait pattern inspired by the alligator. Figure 1 shows the relative arrangement of upper and lower limb for crocodile and alligator whereas Figure 2 shows the alligator-inspired robot



Figure 1: The relative arrangement of upper and lower limb for crocodile and alligator.


Figure 2: Alligator-inspired robot

The alligator-inspired robot is able to move robustly on soils well as pavements. Besides, it also can move smoothly on flat terrains of different nature.

3. Crocodile-inspired dome-shaped pressure receptors for passive hydrodynamic sensing
Passive mechanosensing is an energy-efficient and effective recourse for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for perceiving their surroundings. The passive sensory organs of aquatic animals have provided inspiration to biomimetic researchers for developing underwater passive sensing systems for AUVs. It is inspired by the 'integumentary sensory organs' (ISOs) which are dispersed on the skin of crocodiles and are equipped with slowly adapting (SA) and rapidly adapting (RA) receptors. ISOs assist crocodiles in locating the origin of a disturbance, both on the water surface and under water, thereby enabling them to hunt prey even in a dark environment and turbid waters.






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