Biologically inspired design perhaps is one of the most important movements in engineering design. The paradigm espouses use of analogies to biology in generating conceptual designs for new technologies. In this paper, we briefly summarize some empirical findings about biologically inspired design, and then develop an information-processing theory of creative analogies in biologically inspired design. We also compare our theory with similar theories. In addition, we examine how biologically inspired design is fundamentally different from other design paradigms.

Biologically inspired design uses cross-domain analogies from biology to engineering to enhance design creativity and innovation. This analogical transfer requires conceptual understanding of biological systems. In this paper, we describe a prototype interactive knowledge-based design environment called DANE for supporting conceptual understanding through learning about functional models of biological designs. We present initial results from deploying DANE in an interdisciplinary class on biologically inspired design, indicating that designers found DANE's functional models useful for conceptualizing complex systems.

Household robots are becoming commonplace. The application of social cues, such as emotion, has the potential to make such robots easier to use and understand. However, it remains unclear how household robots can or should display emotion, and what considerations should be given to emotive behavior regarding the expected set of contexts in which the robot will operate. In this paper, we report the results of our systematic evaluation of context and emotion recognition of a non-anthropomorphic robot, the iRobot Roomba. Considerations, implications, and future work are discussed.