Nature has developed an enormous pool of innovations that have successfully withstood practicality and durability tests in an ever-changing environment. These solutions, perfected through millions of years of evolution, serve as an invaluable source of inspiration for technological advancements. To fully harness nature's potential, it is crucial to establish strong interdisciplinary collaborations between biologists and engineers. This cross-disciplinary approachfacilitates the transformation of biological capabilities into practical technical solutions, paving the way for bio-inspired tools, mechanisms, and systems (Bar-Cohen, 2006).

To analyze nature from a technological perspective, biological functions must be categorized into technological applications. The table below provides examples of biological systems and their technological analogs.

Table 1: Characteristic similarities between biology and technical systems, source: Bar-Cohen, 2006

Biology

Technology

Bioengineering, biomimetics, bionics and biomechanics

Body

System

Systems with multifunctional materials and structures are being developed that mimic the capabilities of biological systems.

Skeleton and bones Brain

Structure and support struts Computer

Supporting structures are part of every man-made system

Progress in the development of computers that mimic the functioning of the human brain

Secret service

Artificial intelligence

There are many aspects of artificial intelligence that have been inspired by biology, including augmented reality, autonomous systems, computer intelligence, expert systems, fuzzy logic, etc.

Senses

Sensors

Computer vision, artificial vision, radar and other proximity detectors all have direct biological analogies. However, the capabilities of man-made sensors are nowhere near as good as those of biosensors

Muscles 

Electrochemical

Power generation

Actuators

Rechargeable batteries

Electroactive polymers are actuators that are functionally similar to natural muscles Using biological materials to generate energy will offer enormous advantages to mechanical systems