The Bioinspired Prosumer—Interactions between Bioinspired Design Methods in the Prosumer Scope

TL;DR

This paper explores how prosumers can use bioinspired design methods to create homemade products, like a bicycle flashlight inspired by samara seeds.

Contribution

It presents a novel case of integrating bioinspired design with prosumer practices without expert biomimetics support.

Findings

A bicycle flashlight with a microgenerator inspired by samara seeds was successfully designed and tested.

Bioinspired design in prosumer contexts requires a multidisciplinary approach and presents unique challenges.

The bioinspired approach improved product efficiency and reduced costs.

Abstract

The emergence of prosumers, who actively participate in designing and producing goods, has generated a growing interest in homemade products. Factors such as design methods, component reuse, or digital fabrication empower prosumer designers to realize their ideas. Although there are cases of bioinspired products manufactured by prosumers, the interactions between bioinspired design methods in the prosumer field have not been addressed from an academic point of view. This article presents a case that combines bioinspired design methods with prosumer characteristics from the perspective of a designer who uses biological research results whilst acting as a prosumer. The proposal is to see whether working on a small scale, without the need for biomimetics experts, and independently, as a prosumer, is feasible and valuable. As a result, a bicycle flashlight is designed with a microgenerator bioinspired by the geometry of samara seeds, and is tested in a wind tunnel. This case shows that the integration of a bioinspired design in prosumer contexts poses unique challenges and requires a multidisciplinary approach. Furthermore, the application of a bioinspired approach in this case has not only provided a certain level of novelty to the final product, but has also improved its efficiency and reduced its financial expenditure.

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