Papers by Keyword: Bioinspiration

Abstract: Stochastic resonance (SR) phenomenon is emerged in organic field effect transistors (OFETs) using $\pi$-conjugated polymer, where application of external noise to the OFET system enhances signal/information processing performance which is often found in biological systems.The channel conductivity of the OFET is slightly increased by spin-coating using heated semiconductor polymer solution with heated glass substrate.In order to improve frequency responses of OFET, optimal width of the gate electrode is explored. Furthermore, it turns out that scratching and removing semiconductor film outside the source-drain electrodes and the channel enhances the On-Off current ratio of the device. These fabrication processes lead to steeper nonlinearity on the $I_{\rm DS}$ {\it vs.} $V_{\rm GS}$ curve, resulting in emergence of SR, which is fingerprinted in increase of correlation value between input and output signals with increase of intensity of external noise.

Abstract: Aircraft morphing with regard to UAVs has recently gained incredible momentum; however, only a limited amount of research has been conducted on its effect on tailless aircraft. This is partly due to aerodynamic compromises such as directional instabilities that arise in the absence of a vertical stabilizer. Yet birds readily adapt to adverse flight conditions without vertical stabilizers and are unhindered with respect to stability and maneuvering due to their smooth continuous shape change and rapid muscle response. This research, motivated by the discrepancy between manmade and natural flight designs, investigates the aerodynamic effects of a smart morphing horizontal tail exhibiting bending-twisting coupling for yaw control on a bio-inspired aircraft. The structural response due to actuation was determined using Abaqus and coupled with a Reynolds-averaged-Navier-Stokes turbulence model for a low-Reynolds-number fluid analysis of the deformed shape. The morphing tail was simulated as piezoelectric Macro Fiber Composites with oriented PZT rods. Directional moment and stability derivative are presented to gain insight into the effect of the morphing horizontal tail on yaw control.

Abstract: A control and utilizability of spatial fluctuations in polymer capacitors using immiscible binary mixtures are described. The spatial fluctuations for the device elements are of particular important for bioinspired multielemental network devices that is composed of elements with distributed electric property. Here we first report that spatial distribution of dielectric properties can be enhanced on the fabrication of SDDE using thermal processing that changes the morphology of immiscible PLLA/PCL binary mixture.

Abstract: A novel way to describe the complexity of biological and engineering approaches depending on the number of different base materials is proposed: Either many materials are used (material dominates) or few materials (form dominates) or just one material (structure dominates). The complexity of the approach (in biology as well as in engineering) increases with decreasing number of base materials. Biomimetics, i.e., technology transfer from biology to engineering, is especially promising in MEMS development because of the material constraints in both fields. The Biomimicry Innovation Method is applied here for the first time to identify naturally nanostructured rigid functional materials, and subsequently analyse their prospect in terms of inspiring MEMS development.