Biomimetik.dk

The use of bio-inspiration for the development of new products and devices requires neweducational tools for students consisting of appropriate design and manufacturingtechnologies, as well as curriculum. At the University of Maryland, new educational tools havebeen developed that introduce bio-inspired product realization to undergraduate mechanicalengineering students. These tools include the development of a bio-inspired design repository,a concurrent fabrication and assembly manufacturing technology, a series of undergraduatecurriculum modules and a new senior elective in the bio-inspired robotics area. This paper firstpresents an overview of the two new design and manufacturing technologies that enablestudents to realize bio-inspired products, and describes how these technologies are integratedinto the undergraduate educational experience. Then, the undergraduate curriculum modulesare presented, which provide students with the fundamental design and manufacturingprinciples needed to support bio-inspired product and device development. Finally, an electivebio-inspired robotics project course is present, which provides undergraduates with theopportunity to demonstrate the application of the knowledge acquired through the curriculummodules in their senior year using the new design and manufacturing technologies.