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 |
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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 |