BIOMIMESIS [From the Greek words bios, life, and mimesis, imitation] One method for creating new marine technologies is to look to nature for guidance. The imitation of nature in technological systems is called biomimicry, biomimetics or bionics. Billions of years of evolution and natural selection have led to everything from humble single-celled organisms to complex creatures/lifeforms that survive in extreme conditions. Over time, as continents have moved, collided, and slid across the Earth, the oceans, which cover about 71% of the planet's surface, have remained largely unchanged, suggesting that they are the most important place for life. If Earth had a list of the most important habitats to preserve, the oceans would be at the top. Or rather, the seas and oceans are at the top, it all depends on them. The oceans can be a gold mine for scientific research and technology. Over hundreds of millions of years, everything that humans would need to invent the best technological innovations has developed there. Just look at marine animals and you can see it. These species have developed incredible biological adaptations to survive underwater in ways that any scientist with a long wish list in hand would be happy to emulate. In fact, these biological systems, which have evolved through natural selection, often prove to be more efficient, flexible, and energy-efficient than human inventions. Perhaps the key to our future innovations lies in the sea, which has been creating a "model for perfect
performance" for millions of years. Fish swimming is the result of millions of years of refinement, or evolutionary optimization, which has created highly efficient locomotion in fish. As a result, many of the movements of fish serve as inspiration for ship propulsion technologies, a growing field of study in biomimetics. The most important criterion for cargo ships is efficiency, in order to improve on traditional propellers. Engineering often fails to compete with nature, despite its ability to produce extraordinary products. As a result, engineers are actively working to develop the idea of biomimicry to solve engineering challenges in shipbuilding, underwater robotics, and
sensor technology. Thus, over the past decade, solutions for ocean exploration inspired by the swimming abilities of many ocean organisms have been explored. Combining biomimetics with marine engineering design is a promising technique, as it is inherently complex and demanding.
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