Project Overview
This project rethinks protection through the lens of nature's wisdom to create innovative protective gear for volleyball players. This design breaks free from conventional design paradigms by delving into and replicating strategies of resilience and defense that nature offers.
Biomimicry Design Process
Volleyball is a hobby I enjoy, but I've often faced the issue of bruised arms despite wearing wrist guards. This led me to turn to nature in search of more effective solutions.
Define Problem
How can we make volleyball wristguards more shock-resistant?
Biologize Problem
How does nature dissipate impact?
Discover Phase & Abstract
Hedgehog Quill
Hedgehog quill has honeycomb hollow in the center of their quills that make quill flexible and resistant to impacts.
Large Amount Hedgehog quills can dissipate the impact when it falls from the tree.
Pomelo Peel
Pomelo have liquid-filled struts cell structure within its foamy materials.
There are also vascular bundles for stronger support
Woodpecker Cranium Bone
Woodpecker's skull has a plate-like spongy bone in the frontal cranium that can absorb.
The cerebrospinal fluid absorbs some of the impacts.
Toucan Bird Beak
The solid outer shell is made up of overlapping, hexagonal-shaped thin plates of keratin protein held together by an organic glue
Foamy cells can effectively absorb capacity.
Emulate & Design
Inspired by Toucan Bird Beak
Inspired by Hedgehogs quill
Inspired by Pomelo Peel
After extensive research and design iterations, I've found that hedgehog and pomelo-inspired designs are lighter. I'm intrigued to further explore these concepts and create prototypes.Bio Reference
Hedgehogs Spine
Hedgehogs have keratin spines that act as shock-absorbing padding when they fall from heights of over 10 meters. The spine's internal morphology has a honeycomb hollow in the center and an angled foam-like structure around it, which increases its resistance to buckling and failure by over three times compared to a hollow spine with no internal structure.
Nathan B. Swift, Bor-Kai Hsiung, Emily B. Kennedy, Kwek-Tze Tan, Dynamic impact testing of hedgehog spines using a dual-arm crash pendulum, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, Volume 61, 2016, Pages 271-282, ISSN 1751-6161, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2016.03.019.
Pomelo Peel
The pomelo fruit's peel has three layers with distinct functions, including protecting the fruit from falls. The mesocarp layer has a unique hierarchical structure that can dissipate kinetic energy through its cell-struts. This structure can inspire the design of wrist guards for volleyball players to prevent wrist injuries. By incorporating layers of foam and liquid-filled struts, the protection provided by wrist guards can be significantly enhanced.
Ortiz, Jonel & Zhang, Guanglu & Mcadams, Daniel. (2018). A Model for the Design of a Pomelo Peel Bioinspired Foam. Journal of Mechanical Design. 140. 114501. 10.1115/1.4040911.
Pototype
Iteration 2
Iteration 1
I implied small hollow resin-made cones to stimulate the quill structure of the hedgehog.
For the first iteration, The cones are on a fairly large scale made wrist guard rigid
To improve, the cones were elongated and slimmed down in iteration 2, significantly enhancing their impact dissipation capabilities.
I used the generative design method in Fusion360 to simulate the struts with liquid or gel inside its body.
Then, I utilized Midjourney AI to overlay my initial renderings, resulting in the creation of the final render.
Reference
The Biomimicry Process - Biomimicry Toolbox. (n.d.). Biomimicry Toolbox. https://toolbox.biomimicry.org/methods/process/
Yoon SH, Park S. A mechanical analysis of woodpecker drumming and its application to shock-absorbing systems. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. 2011;6(1):016003. doi:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3182/6/1/016003
Wang L, Cheung JTM, Pu F, Li D, Zhang M, Fan Y. Why Do Woodpeckers Resist Head Impact Injury: A Biomechanical Investigation. Briffa M, ed. PLoS ONE. 2011;6(10):e26490. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026490
Fischer SF, Thielen M, Loprang RR, et al. Pummelos as concept generators for biomimetically inspired low weight structures with excellent damping properties. Advanced Engineering Materials. 2010;12(12). doi:10.1002/adem.201080065
Pressurized struts dissipate impact - biological strategy - asknature. AskNature Pressurized Struts Dissipate Impact Comments. https://asknature.org/strategy/pressurized-struts-dissipate-impact/. Accessed February 16, 2023.
Ortiz, Jonel & Zhang, Guanglu & Mcadams, Daniel. (2018). A Model for the Design of a Pomelo Peel Bioinspired Foam. Journal of Mechanical Design. 140. 114501. 10.1115/1.4040911.
Nathan B. Swift, Bor-Kai Hsiung, Emily B. Kennedy, Kwek-Tze Tan, Dynamic impact testing of hedgehog spines using a dual-arm crash pendulum, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, Volume 61, 2016, Pages 271-282, ISSN 1751-6161, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2016.03.019.
Vincent JFV, Owers P. Mechanical design of hedgehog spines and porcupine quills. Journal of Zoology. 2009;210(1):55-75. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1986.tb03620.x
SEKI Y, SCHNEIDER M, MEYERS M. Structure and mechanical behavior of a toucan beak. Acta Materialia. 2005;53(20):5281-5296. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2005.04.048
https://www.facebook.com/AskNature. Beak design absorbs high-energy impacts : Common Toucan - AskNature. AskNature. Published September 27, 2017. https://asknature.org/strategy/beak-design-absorbs-high-energy-impacts/
Hierarchical Organization of Peel Confers Impact Resistance - biological strategy - asknature. AskNature Hierarchical Organization of Peel Confers Impact Resistance Comments
Drol CJ, Kennedy EB, Hsiung BK, Swift NB, Tan KT. Bioinspirational understanding of flexural performance in hedgehog spines. Acta Biomaterialia. 2019;94:553-564.doi:https://doi.org/10.1016 j.actbio.2019.04.036
Vincent JFV. Survival of the cheapest. Materials Today. 2002;5(12):28-41. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s1369-7021(02)01237-3