BioInspired! So What? Now What!

This website describes research "aimed at developing a new class of biologically inspired robots that exhibit much greater robustness in performance in unstructured environments than today's robots".  Participating universities include Standard, Berkeley, Harvard and John Hopkins.  Webpages linked off the overview page include:

• low-level control,

high-level control

fabrication

shape deposition manufacturing (rapid prototyping)

This Weblog includes a wealth of biomimetic examples collected by Luis Gustavo Lira. 

Quoting from the Home page:

"Biro-net aims to establish a network for advancing  interdisciplinary research in the UK which will further our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that allow natural and robotic agents to adapt and        survive in uncertain and dynamic environments."

Thanks to Julian Vincent and the Biomimetics listserver for the pointer. 

2012/07/11 Although the actual Network site no longer exists, the University of Birmhingham offers a number of courses involving design inspired by nature.

Quoting from the About page:

"Nature Inspired Creative Design" is a new research network, part of the AHRB/EPSRC funded "Designing for the 21st Century" program. The network is based in CERCIA (the Centre of Excellence for Research in Computational Intelligence and Applications) at the University of Birmingham.

English Nature is an organization that "champions the conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places in England. We are a Government agency set up by the Environment Protection Act 1990 and are funded by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs." 

This particular webpage has over 100 lesson plans supporting the UK National Curriculum up to 14+ in a broad range of areas.  In addition, there are over 500 links to other educational resources.

Ecotrust has developed an extensive Pattern Language for the "conservation economy", including 57 patterns organized under:

This website includes a broad range of pointers to material on Biomimetics and Biomimicry, as well as a link back to the MATS324 course outline.

"Life scientists yearn to understand the natural world. They persist in trying to unravel the mysteries of biology because these mysteries are inherently intriguing. But more pressingly, scientists want to learn how biological systems work so that they can control them. Such control yields benefits to health and to the human enterprise in countless ways. Harnessing biology's magic underlies the extraordinary promise of biotechnology"

From the home page:

"The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. On more than 4000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics.

Quirks & Quarks is a weekly CBC Radio broadcast on science, technology, medicine and the environment.  Archives are available back to the 1988-1989 season, initially only showing segment titles and people interviewed.  Starting in 1996, Real Audio files were added, with MP3 showing up in 2000.  Recent programs include abstracts, pictures and links to other sites.