Abstract
Practitioners of biomimetic design express one consistent need—access to relevant biological information. This information is most useful when the transferable elements have been abstracted from the biological principle, are organized by design and engineering function, and are supported by contextual search functions. However, the fine details of how the information is organized and accessed are critical. In this chapter, we reflect upon AskNature.org, a biomimetic database created to address these issues, and its key elements, including a Biomimicry Taxonomy, biological strategy pages organized by function, search and tri-browse features, and bio-inspired product pages as examples of bio-inspired design successes.
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We thank Ashok Goel and our anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback.
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Deldin, JM., Schuknecht, M. (2014). The AskNature Database: Enabling Solutions in Biomimetic Design. In: Goel, A., McAdams, D., Stone, R. (eds) Biologically Inspired Design. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5248-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5248-4_2
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