Bioinspired System Design | March 3, 2023

BIOINSPIRED SYSTEM
DESIGN
PRINCIPLES OF SURVIVAL,
GROWTH & INNOVATION
Tojin T. Eapen
Innomantra | University of Missouri
March 3, 2023

TOJIN T. EAPEN
• Co-founder and Strategic advisor to Innomantra.
• Faculty (on leave) at the University of Missouri.
• Explores idea generation, bioinspiration, AI-enabled
creativity, and sustainable innovation.
• 17 years of professional, consulting, and research
experience.
• Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, MBA from Indian School of Business, B. Tech from
NIT Calicut.
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tteapen/
• Blogs at innovation56k.com
BIOINSPIRED SYSTEM DESIGN | EAPEN T. T. EAPEN 2

AGENDA
• Introduction to Bioinspired System Design
• Learning about Innovation from Living Systems
• The ERP Model
• Prominence Principles
• Application 1: Startup Strategies
• Application 2: Biomimicry for technological innovation
• Application 3: Generative AI Business Models
• Discussion & Ideation

BIOINSPIRATION
• Inspired by Life
• Why is bioinspiration significant for innovation?
• Forthcoming book: Bioinspired System Design
• Co-authored with Daniel J. Finkenstadt.

SURVIVAL CONCERNS
• Three Survival Concerns
• Resources (Ro)
• Forces (Fo)
• Observers (Ob)
• Loss of survival due to any of the three.
• Organizations have the same three concerns.

THE ERP MODEL
• The ERP Model
• E - Efficiency: Management of Resources
• R - Resilience: Management of Forces
• P - Prominence: Management of Observers
• The Efficiency-Resilience Tradeoff
• High and Low Prominence

EFFICIENCY STRATEGIES
• Management of Resources.
• Resting
• Reduction
• Refining
• Regularization

RESILIENCE STRATEGIES
• Management of Forces
• Reinforcement
• Reservoir
• Replacement
• Repair
• Regularization

PROMINENCE STRATEGIES
• Management of Observers.
• Balancing between high and low prominence.

E-R LINKAGES
• Increase in Efficiency → Decrease in Resilience
• Extreme forces impact survival directly as well as
indirectly by damaging resources.
• Camels employ both E and R strategies.

R-P LINKAGES
• Increase in Resilience → Increase in Prominence
• Parrotfish (Chlorurus sordidus) uses its transparent
mucous cocoon as protection against both forces and
predators.

E-P TRADEOFFS
• Efficient systems are generally smaller and may be less
prominent. A smaller, more efficient business
organization may be less prominent and draw less
attention.
• Prominence can sometimes help in the conservation of
energy, as seen in the gaping strategy of the shark.
• By frightening its prey, it can avoid chasing it and
conserve energy.

THE SQUIRREL’S DILEMMA
• Balance Efficiency, Resilience, and Prominence.
• Efficiency: Resources (Nuts, Energy)
• Resilience: Forces (Weather, Wind)
• Prominence: Observers (Predators, Rivals, Mate)
• It needs to gather as many nuts as possible to ensure its
survival through the cold months.
• It must balance this need with the risks posed by
predators and competitors.
• The squirrel's rapid movements may attract the attention
of predators and rivals.

MILITARY CRAFTS
• Military aircraft and naval vessels operate in hostile
environments and are required to balance ERP factors.
• Efficiency of fuel and personnel.
• Resilience against extreme weather conditions.
• Prominence relative to friendly and enemy observers.
• Design of aircraft survivability (Ball 2003).
• Ball, Robert E. (2003), The Fundamentals of Aircraft
Combat Survivability: Analysis and Design, American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

ERP SCENARIOS
How can the EPR model used for scenario
planning in organizations?

ERP SCENARIOS
• Scenario Planning using ERP Model
• Identify Key Resources, Forces, Observers
• Resources: Human, Financial, Knowledge etc.
• Forces: PESTLE Factors
• Observers: Competitors, Rivals, Customers, Partners
• Trends & Breaks Analysis

STARTUP STRATEGIES
How can startups and entrepreneurial firms
learn from bioinspired principles?

STARTUP STRATEGIES
• Nature of growth: Lessons from nature.
• Balancing between Efficiency, Resilience, and
Prominence
• Example: How to manage prominence in startups?

PROMINENCE BALANCING
• Balancing High & Low Prominence
• Blocking (Waterholes)
• Multi-channel Prominence (Ocelots)
• Bilateral Signaling (Octopus)
• Diurnal Prominence (Xerocoles)
• Seasonal Prominence (Mandarin Duck)

STARTUP PROMINENCE
• Startups and entrepreneurial ventures are required to
demonstrate adaptive prominence.
• High Prominence: Customers, investors
• Low Prominence: Competitors, rivals
• Discuss: How can you use the prominence balancing
strategies found in nature?

CEPHALAPOD STRATEGIES
• Balancing between high and low prominence.
• High Prominence: Customers, investors
• Low Prominence: Competitors, rivals
• Startups and entrepreneurial ventures are required to
demonstrate adaptive prominence.
• Octopuses are able to demonstrate bilateral signaling.
• What are the lessons for startups?

MANDARIN DUCK
• Seasonal Strategy of the Mandarin Duck
• After the breeding season, males of the Mandarin Ducks
molt the showy feathers they use to attract mates and
dress in drab attire called eclipse plumage.
• What are the lessons for startups?

STARTUP PROMINENCE
• Discuss: How can you use the prominence balancing
strategies found in nature?

MITTELSTAND
• ERP principles in the Mittelstand Companies

BIOMIMICRY
How can we mimic biological systems for
sustainable technological innovation?

BIOMIMICRY & ERP
• Biomimicry is using bioinspiration for technological
innovation.
• Kingfisher-inspired Japanese Bullet Train (E)
• Hippopotamus red sweat inspires sunscreens (R)
• Cephalapods’ chromatophores inspire clothing (P)

KINGFISHER
• Eiji Nakatsu, the Japan Railways Group engineer tasked
with solving the bullet train’s noise.
• Japanese engineer Eiji Nakatsu, who had a passion for
bird watching
• Used the Kingfisher’s beak as an inspiration to improve
the design of the Shinkansen.
• This is an example of an efficiency design through
bioinspiration.
• Snell-Rood, Emilie. "Interdisciplinarity: Bring biologists
into biomimetics." Nature 529, no. 7586 (2016): 277-278.

HIPPOPOTAMUS
• Hippos secrete a reddish oily fluid called “red sweat”
from special glands in their skin.
• Red sweat functions as a skin moisturizer, water
repellent, and antibiotic. This is a resilience strategy.
• Red sweat of the hippopotamus as an inspiration for
sunscreens (Saikawa et al. 2004).
• This is an example of resilience design through
bioinspiration.
• Saikawa, Yoko, Kimiko Hashimoto, Masaya Nakata,
Masato Yoshihara, Kiyoshi Nagai, Motoyasu Ida, and
Teruyuki Komiya. "The red sweat of the hippopotamus."
Nature 429, no. 6990 (2004): 363-363.

SPIDER
• ORNILUX bird-protection glass, a product of German
glass manufacturer Arnold Glas.
• Birds can see UV, so they avoid colliding with orb webs
made from UV-reflective silks. This is a prominence
strategy. However, it can also potentially contribute to
resilience by strengthening glass.
• Connections between spiders and glass: Spider glazing in
architecture. Broken safety glass displays a spiderweb
pattern. Glass transition in spider silk.
• Kennedy, Emily Barbara. "Biomimicry: Design by
analogy to biology." Research-Technology Management
60, no. 6 (2017): 51-56.

CEPHALAPODS
• Cephalopod-inspired color-changing systems (Isapour
and Lattuda 2018).
• This is an example of prominence design through
bioinspiration.
• Isapour, Golnaz, and Marco Lattuada. "Bioinspired
stimuli‐responsive color‐changing systems." Advanced
Materials 30, no. 19 (2018): 1707069.

BIOINSPIRATION & AI
How AI is enabling the design of bioinspired
products and businesses.

BIOINSPIRATION & AI
• Generative AI Models
• Large Language Models (GPT3)
• Generative Adversarial Networks
• Text-to-Image Models (e.g., DALL-E)
• Text-to-3D and Text-to-4D
• Text-to-Video

DALL-E DALL-E is a deep learning model developed by OpenAI that is
capable of generating images from text descriptions. It uses a
transformer architecture similar to the one used in GPT and is trained
on a dataset of images and their associated captions.
[https://openai.com/dall-e-2/]
[https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini]

BIOINSPIRED DESIGN USING GENERATIVE AI
Camelar
Camel-inspired Cars
Koafa
Koala-inspired Sofa
Hippotub
Hippo-inspired Bathtub
Spidercopter
Spider-inspired Helicopter

KOALA
• Koafa: Concept sofas inspired by
the koala.
• Why is this a good (or bad) idea?
• What other product can draw
inspiration from this organism?
• Source: Innovation56K.com

CAMEL
• Camelar: Concept cars inspired
by the camel.

HIPPO
• Hippotub: Concept tubs that are
inspired by the hippopotamus.

TIGER
• Tigoes: Shoes inspired by the
tiger.

SQUID
• Squink: Pens inspired by the
squid.

PARADISAEIDAE
• Paradiso: Concept tubs that are
inspired by the birds-of-paradise.

SPIDER
• Spidercopter: Concept
helicopters inspired by the
hippopotamus.

ELEPHANT
• Elephantcopter: Concept
helicopters inspired by the
elephant.

BUTTERFLY
• Flutterbag: Concept bags
inspired by the butterfly.

EAGLE
• Eaglex: Concept trains inspired
by the eagle.

HONEYBEE
• Honeypot: Concept cups inspired
by the honeybee.

PANDA
• Pandabode: Concept beds
inspired by the panda.

PHANTAFLY
• Phantafly: Concept products
inspired by the elephant and the
butterfly.

TORSCION
• Torscion: Concept cars inspired
by the tortoise and the scorpion.

THANK YOU
Eapen@Innomantra.com

Bioinspired System Design | March 3, 2023

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