• in brief
• doing bionics
• the Botanic Garden – a treasure trove of ideas
• bionic R&D projects
• public relations, study courses and professional training
• contact

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Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck.

The Plant Biomechanics Group of the Botanic Garden of the University of Freiburg is lead by Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck. Our group is characterised by its many international connections. There are cooperations with research groups in Switzerland, Austria, France, French Guyana, Great Britain, New Zealand and the USA.
Apart from this “horizontal” network, almost the whole of the “vertical” spectrum of bionical work is covered through cooperations. This encompasses solid basic biological research, finding appropriate abstractions of biological models for technical implementations as well as the development of prototypes on a laboratory level.

The Plant Biomechanics Group Freiburg is not only member of BIOKON but also part of the Baden-Württembergian “Competence Network Biomimetics” (together with the University of Tübingen and the Institute of Textile Technology and Process Engineering Denkendorf – ITV). Due to the interdisciplinary approach of our cooperation partners and current R&D projects, the knowledge transfer from research to technical applications is ensured for the whole value chain. The strong networking of the Plant Biomechanics Group makes the BIOKON centre in Freiburg a very qualified contact for any queries on structural properties of plants and their possible uses in bionics.

Doing biomimetics/bionics as seen by the Plant Biomechanics Group Freiburg

The approach taken in Freiburg to doing bionics is that the first step is carrying out basic biological research in biomechanics and functional morphology. In a second step, new insights are prepared for and made available to technology for further processing (bottom up). Additionally, we also follow an alternative strategy, i.e. searching for possible biological model solutions for specific technical problems (top down). From our point of view, the latter approach enables the development of bionically inspired products in shorter time, whereas the former approach has the potential to yield greater steps in innovation.

The process of doing bionics as seen by the Plant Biomechanics Group Freiburg.

The Botanic Garden – a treasure trove of ideas for bionics

The Botanic Garden of the Univer-sity of Freiburg provides and excel-lent infrastructure for projects in bioncs.

Through the Botanic Garden, the Plant Biomechanics Groups Freiburg is integrated in a national and international association of botanical gardens. Research projects in bionics can thus fall back on this extraordinary and well-established infrastructure. The accessible reservoir of plants as possible biological models for any topic in bionics is excellent. Comparative studies on different representatives of bionically interesting genera or families can often be conducted easily.

.As a consequence, general – and therefore evolutionary particularly successful – principles can be distinguished from specific solu-tions of individual species. Because of the availability of a plentitude of plants, a screening of plants for properties potentially relevant in bionics is possible. The necessary basic research of biological models can thus be carried out with the set goal in mind of future uses in bionics.

Research and development project in bionics

The core competence of the Plant Biomechanics Group Freiburg lies in the field of light-weight structures, new materials (gradients, composites with natural fibres) and smart materials (self-repairing and self-adaptive).

Horsetails can be used as biological models for technical applications.

Public relations, study courses and professional training

Students are getting to know an impact pendulum made from Lego® in a very playful yet investigative way.

An additional competence of the Plant Biomechanics Group Freiburg is the education sector. Public relations like science fairs, trade shows, tours of the Botanic Garden or public discussion forums are considered to be of particular importance. Lectures and seminars are offered as part of the post-grad level tuition at the Botany Department of the University of Freiburg.

Contact

Dr. Olga Speck