Role of Bionik in product development

Abstract

Product development is a very interesting discipline especially when it can have economical value and a big demand in the market. There are many methods in developing products. One of the metod is called “Bionik” as abbreviation of “Biologie und Technik” (in German language) which means “Biology and Technique”. By this method the products will be developed by observing the nature. The solution can be from plants, animals or anything which exists in the nature. It is interesting to dive in and implement this method for increasing innovations in Indonesia. In this paper it will be explained how the nature can give use ideas and that what from nature is has strengthness and we should not destroy this specification but implement it for products. The stages of product development by using Bionik will be overviewed as well and some examples will be displayed such as skin structure of shark or dolphin for high speed vehicles, event the development of bullet proof material composites from natural fibers such as fibers of empty fruit bunch of oil palm (EFB), etc. The implementation of composite from EFB fibers for the armored vehicles can reduced its weight by 50 to 93% depending on the thickness of the replaced steels.