Bioinspiration & Biomimetics最新文献

{"title":"Magnetically-Driven Deployable Structure Inspired by Worms.","authors":"Ilaria Cedrola, Sabina Maglio, Mohammad Hasan Dad Ansari, Arianna Menciassi, Linda Paternò","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae6698","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ae6698","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigates the protrusion mechanism of the unsegmented marine worm Phascolosoma stephensoni to inspire new actuation strategies for soft robotics. A magnetically-driven, soft fluidic transmission mechanism is developed to deploy a proboscis-like structure, achieving an elongation ratio of up to 2.5 relative to the system initial resting length. The design integrates an active fluid-filled trunk with four magnetic bending units (15 mm x 30 mm x 2mm) and a passive proboscis housed inside during rest. Under external magnetic field sources, the units compress the trunk, driving the proboscis deployment through fluid displacement, while hyperelastic passive strips enable its retraction when the magnetic field is switched off. The units were fabricated from DragonSkin-10 silicone with 5 μm-NdFeB particles at concentrations ranging from 40 to 70 wt%. Increasing particle content from 40 to 70 wt% yields a magnetization gain up to ~200% and marked improvements in bending performance. A trunk analytical model was developed and validated with 2.4% error to guide the proboscis design. Final performances were evaluated in terms of proboscis displacement (up to 45 mm, i.e. ratio of up to 2.5 relative to the system initial resting length), internal pressure variation (up to 3 kPa), and tip force (up to 1 N). These results demonstrate how optimizing magneto-mechanical properties enables a fully soft, wirelessly actuated fluidic transmission mechanism, paving the way for applications such as targeted delivery in constrained and delicate environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147789294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Data Driven Prediction of Bat Flight Kinematics and Trajectory.","authors":"Neil Ashwin Raj, Danesh Tafti","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae66bf","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ae66bf","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bat flight is unique among animal species due to their patagium wings which consist of a thin membrane connecting wing bones. This allows bats to have many degrees of freedom, typically more than birds or insects. In this work, we quantify the dimensional complexity of three different flights, straight flight, ascending right turn, and U-turn made by a great round-leaf bat (Hipposideros armiger). We employ proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) to determine the relevant number of modes that capture the essential kinematics associated with each flight. The POD is performed for the full flights and also on a flap-wise basis to investigate if the dimensional complexity of single flaps varies across the different flights. A study is performed to identify the marker points on the bat body that exhibit independent kinematic behavior across different flight maneuvers, with the goal of identifying the regions or joints that contribute most distinctly to the overall motion. Finally, we propose and test a deep learning architecture for predicting global flight trajectory given the wing motion and inversely predict the wing motion in the body frame required to effectuate an observed flight trajectory. These findings offer valuable insights for developing bat inspired UAVs.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147789118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Resin models of Drosophila strain sensors highlight mechanical pre-filtering of sensory inputs.","authors":"Gesa F Dinges, Isabella M Kudyba, Nicholas S Szczecinski","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae5e11","DOIUrl":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae5e11","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Locomotion can be modified and reinforced through the utilization of sensory feedback. A type of sensory structure, commonly found in the legs of insects, is strain sensors called campaniform sensilla (CS). These are embedded in the rigid cuticle and commonly found in groups and fields, some of which contain a variety of CS sizes and orientations. The CS groups and fields on the legs are consistent across individuals of the same species, but the topography of the local cuticle and the number of sensilla may vary. In order to investigate the effect of these variations on force encoding, we utilize a previously published physical modeling approach to begin to address three questions: (i) how might the cuticular contour (i.e. deviation in elevation from the local cuticle patch) amplify and reorient the strain that CS encode? (ii) How might the absence of some CS impact the strain encoded by the remaining CS in that field? and (iii) How might these two mechanisms impact how a field encodes the direction of loading on a limb? Using 3D printed resin mechanical models of a<i>Drosophila</i>CS field with 11 CS, we measured the displacement at each sensillum's location via a corresponding strain gauge rosette (i.e. nonparallel strain gauges). We 3D printed additional 'block' models that flattened the contour and further \"reduced\" models that omitted some caps from the field. Comparing the realistic, block, and reduced models revealed that, as predicted, raised cuticular contouring can rotate the directional sensitivity of a single CS. Removing some caps from the field changed the magnitude, but rarely the directional sensitivity, of cap strain. Both contour and cap removal alter the population response to different loading directions. These results suggest that inter-individual differences could greatly impact strain sensing<i>in vivo</i>and provide concrete hypotheses for future biological experiments. We conclude by discussing implications for motor control and robotics, as well as limitations and improvements to our method.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147655361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dyadic interactions, feedback rule changes, and deliberative decisions underlie honeybee inflight group coordination.","authors":"Md Saiful Islam, Ishriak Ahmed, Imraan A Faruque","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae5d24","DOIUrl":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae5d24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding the interaction architectures that individual insects implement in group flight contributes to mathematics, biology, and robotics, including enabling dynamic aerial swarming. This study analyzes 1000 trajectories of flying honeybees in crowded conditions approaching a stimulus and finds a dominant flight coordination architecture of 'dyadic' interactions and a new three-zone decision-making process. The experiment measures individual insect positions via an optical tracking system recording honeybees returning to a robotically-actuated hive entrance. Neighborhood analysis through three methods (cross-correlation, distance threshold, and average distance threshold) reveals the dominant interaction is dyadic, consisting of transient leader-follower behaviors embedded in the larger collective. The followers' update rules are then tested against three regulation candidates (control strategies by which the follower adjusts its motion: optic flow, relative velocity, and 'optical expansion rate') to minimize root mean square error. The results show that in each dyad, the follower proceeds through a three-stage process involving a change to feedback rules that is separated by an intermediate unregulated period. An insect initially maintains a consistent (less than 8% variation) optical expansion rate until the inter-agent distance is as small as 10 cm. The regulation candidates then undergo large variations during an observation/decision zone lasting an average of 1.04 s. 79% of followers entering the decision zone then re-engage to track the same initial leader while 21% disengage. Upon re-engagement, the follower regulates inter-agent relative velocity, consistent with a closed-loop feedback proportional-integral controller regulating velocity tracking error. Proportional gain showed low variability across individuals, while derivative gain was found negligible and integral gain varied by individual. These findings highlight an alternative swarm architecture incorporating individual decision-making, feedback regulation target changes, and the presence of three interaction timescales.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147640530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sweep angle effects of flow over a seal whisker-inspired undulated cylinder.","authors":"Trevor K Dunt, Christin T Murphy, Ondřej Ferčák, Raúl Bayoán Cal, Jennifer A Franck","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae585e","DOIUrl":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae585e","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Flow over a seal whisker-inspired undulated cylinder at swept back angles is computationally investigated, comparing the vortex shedding, forces, and wake characteristics to those of an equivalent smooth geometry. Numerous prior studies have demonstrated that undulated cylinders can reduce mean drag and unsteady lift oscillations; however, none have isolated the effects of the sweep angle resulting from whisker positioning in flow. Inspired by the active control seals exert over their whiskers while navigating and sensing in unsteady aquatic environments, this study investigates how such orientation influences the hydrodynamic performance of the geometry. Simulations are performed of flow across a rigid, infinite-span, undulated cylinder at sweep angles from 0^∘to 60^∘and at Reynolds numbers of 250 and 500. At zero sweep, the undulated cylinder breaks up coherent two-dimensional vortices, having the effect of reducing drag by 11.4% and root mean square lift by 90.8% compared to a smooth elliptical cylinder. With sweep added, the prominence of spanwise vortex breakup and force suppression is reduced, approximating flow over smooth ellipse geometry as sweep increases. At low sweep angles of 15^∘and 30^∘, lift is still suppressed by 72.4% and 47.6% while drag results in a smaller difference of 5.7% and 1.6% reduction from a smooth ellipse. These results reinforce that sweep angle is a significant parameter both mechanically and biologically in the flow physics of whisker-inspired undulated geometries.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147534620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Topology-driven mechanical performance in architected cellular materials: insights from bioinspired glass sponge lattices.","authors":"Hassan Beigi-Rizi, Svetlana Terekhina, Harold Auradou, Lamine Hattali","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae57f0","DOIUrl":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae57f0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Architected lattice materials inspired by biological structures are frequently described as bioinspired, yet the underlying functional principles governing their mechanical response are not always explicitly isolated. The hexactinellid sponge<i>Euplectella aspergillum</i>exhibits a distinctive skeletal organization based on a periodic square unit subdivided into four sub-squares, where two opposite regions are reinforced by paired diagonal struts while the remaining corners remain non-reinforced. This alternating reinforcement pattern introduces spatial heterogeneity in stiffness and connectivity at the unit-cell scale. While related geometries have been examined under compression and bending, their tensile elasto-plastic behavior and the specific mechanical role of this architectural coupling remain insufficiently understood. In this study, we isolate and quantify the contributions of (i) diagonal reinforcement and (ii) spatial cell alternation under uniaxial tension. PLA-based lattice variants were fabricated using fused filament fabrication to decouple these structural variables and were benchmarked against the full EA-sponge derived topology. Quasi-static tensile experiments, supported by linear elastic finite-element analysis, demonstrate that all configurations exhibit stretch-dominated elastic scaling. However, significant differences emerge in post-yield behavior. Fully plain and fully reinforced lattices show early strain localization and structurally brittle fracture modes, whereas alternating architectures promote stress redistribution and delay the formation of continuous failure bands. The EA-sponge topology, characterized by its checkerboard alternation and geometrically offset diagonals, exhibits the most stable structural elasto-plastic response, combining stiffness retention with progressive, non-catastrophic fracture behavior. These findings demonstrate that tensile performance is governed primarily by structural connectivity and spatial organization rather than relative density or material properties alone, establishing a topology-driven design principle derived from biological organization.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147522801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Aerodynamic performance of autorotating seeds: scaling by size.","authors":"Alberto Lolli, Giovanni Corsi, Barbara Mazzolai, Antonio DeSimone","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae4f46","DOIUrl":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae4f46","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigates the aerodynamics of a bio-inspired samara seed through high-fidelity numerical simulations, employing an overset mesh method to fully resolve its six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) motion. Coupled fluid and rigid body dynamics was solved using OpenFOAM v2406. A rigid 3D-printed seed prototype reproducing the samara of<i>Acer campestre</i>and its geometrically scaled versions (0.5x and 2x) were analyzed to explore the effects of scaling on passive flight dynamics. The simulations captured the full 6-DOF behavior, including the transition from uniformly accelerated vertical free-fall to steady autorotation. Key aerodynamic quantities such as descent velocity, angular velocity, coning and pitch angles, and the surrounding flow field structure were evaluated and compared. Simulation results are found to agree with scaling laws derived from the literature. Autorotation was found to be robust across scales, but strongly dependent on drop height and aerodynamic efficiency. The larger prototype (2x) exhibited the highest aerodynamic performance, while the small seed (0.5x) showed a reduced lift and, consequently, a comparatively higher descent velocity. Moreover, the 2x prototype, provided a greater surface area, thus offering potential functional benefits for applications to environmental sensing. Flow visualizations confirmed the formation of coherent leading-edge vortices, which contribute to lift generation and flight stability. The drop height necessary to establish steady autorotation increases with the size of the seed. These results suggest the existence of practical and biological limits for effective autorotational flight and offer design insights for passive bio-inspired flying systems that balance scalability, deployment constraints, and aerodynamic performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147391794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Polysectoid: a hyperredundant soft-bodied robot for modeling the role of parapodia in undulation and peristalsis.","authors":"Huy Pham, Malyka Norville, Christian Lee, Indy D Sarma, Shon Ceballos, Humzah Durrani, Moey Rojas, Kelly M Dorgan, Kathryn A Daltorio","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae56c5","DOIUrl":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae56c5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biological inspiration offers new and innovative solutions to exploring challenging terrains, and implementations in bio-inspired robotics in turn offers insights to biological form and function. In particular, annelids (segmented worms), such as<i>Nereis</i>sp. (bristleworms), are useful subjects for their multi-modal locomotion through differing environments. This research aims to mimic key anatomical features of nereid worms in order to develop a new bio-inspired soft robot, named 'Polysectoid', that effectively moves through challenging terrains using both peristalsis and undulation. The muscles of the tendon-driven soft robots are longitudinal, and the robot has protruding structures mimicking parapodia and chaetae. Taking advantage of these features for both undulation and peristalsis required a new structural design to achieve both large bending motion and large diameter changes. Thus, the robot's body is constructed of many long strips of flexible polymer, connected with custom 3D-printed channel pieces. We compare effectiveness and efficiency of movements of the resulting robot on substrates with different textures and in confined spaces. Parapodia and chaetae improve robot performance, with different effects on different gaits and substrates. Peristalsis with long parapodia allows Polysectoid to stay on a straightforward trajectory even without steering control. On the other hand, undulation allows the robot to navigate well in tight spaces, such as sandwiched between parallel surfaces, even when the distance between the parallel substrates was reduced to 66% of the robot's diameter. This type of undulatory motion could have novel applications in inspections of confined spaces. As a detailed physical model, this design provides a platform to further examine the biomechanics of annelid-inspired locomotion and cascading neural pattern generator-based networks.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147516816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From shallow waters to Mariana Trench: a survey of bio-inspired underwater soft robots.","authors":"Jie Wang, Peng Du, Yiyuan Zhang, Zhexin Xie, Cecilia Laschi","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae3af2","DOIUrl":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae3af2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sample Exploring the ocean environment holds profound significance in areas such as resource exploration and ecological protection. Underwater robots struggle with extreme water pressure and often cause noise and damage to the underwater ecosystem, while bio-inspired soft robots draw inspiration from aquatic creatures to address these challenges. These bio-inspired approaches enable robots to withstand high water pressure, minimize drag, operate with efficient manipulation and sensing systems, and interact with the environment in an eco-friendly manner. Consequently, bio-inspired soft robots have emerged as a promising field for ocean exploration. This paper reviews recent advancements in underwater bio-inspired soft robots, analyses their design considerations when facing different desired functions, bio-inspirations, ambient pressure, temperature, light, and biodiversity, and finally explores the progression from bio-inspired principles to practical applications in the field and suggests potential directions for developing the next generation of underwater soft robots.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146013437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When Animals Turn Inside Out: The Eversion of Bloodworms.","authors":"Soohwan Kim, Atsingnwi Tuma, David Qin, Young Jae Ryu, Donghui Kim, Aditi Abhilash, Sumedh Chintawar, Caela Thomas-Holness, Arianne Fladger, Essy Behravesh, Ying Zhen, Yanyan Zhou, Joseph T Thompson, David L Hu","doi":"10.1088/1748-3190/ae5e34","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ae5e34","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bloodworms, Glycera dibranchiata, possess an eversible proboscis that normally remains concealed within their bodies but explosively everts if the worm attacks or burrows. How does the bloodworm evert quickly and reliably? In this experimental study, we characterized bloodworm kinematics, pressure, and material properties to estimate the criteria for safe eversion without rupture of the proboscis. We predicted the proboscis can withstand pressures 50 times higher and bending strains up to three times higher than the respective values observed. We also presented a dimensional analysis of eversion, finding that everting animals, from frogs to snails to sharks, do not satisfy Froude's law for equivalence of velocities. Our findings may help inspire the development of pressure-driven soft robots with efficient retraction capabilities.</p>","PeriodicalId":55377,"journal":{"name":"Bioinspiration & Biomimetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147655421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}