Abstract
Natural organisms often have multiple functions and multi-optimisation in a single component or mechanism. In addition, natural organisms are highly integrated assemblies. In contrast, human design has traditionally avoided multi-functioning in single components because of the difficulties this presents in the design process. Only in recent years has there been a trend towards multi-functioning in engineering components. The advantage of multi-functioning is that extremely high levels of performance can be achieved. This paper gives examples of multi-functioning and multi-optimisation in a bird flight feather and a bird display feather. In each case, the advantages of multi-functioning are explained and analogies with man-made design are given.
| Translated title of the contribution | Multi-functioning And Multi-optimisation In Feathers |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Pages (from-to) | 1 - 10 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | International Journal of Design and Nature |
| Volume | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2007 |