By Tanuj Saraf | 12 December 2023
Humans are inherently curious. The concept of learning from nature is not new - it's as old as humanity itself, for we are nature. Our inspirations have, at times, been strikingly evident. Even the ancient Greeks spoke of Icarus and Daedalus, who, while confined, studied birds' flight to craft their own feathered wings for escape. Let’s not dwell on Icarus’s less successful sun-adjacent endeavours; we venture capitalists prefer to look on the bright side of things.
Fast forward to the 20th century, our mimicry of nature became more intricate. We've created Velcro inspired by the clingy nature of burrs and studied plant cells to better our solar technologies. In the Olympics, swimmers have donned suits with sharkskin textures to cut through water more efficiently. The innovation list inspired by nature is lengthy.
This inspiration isn't limited to creating new products, it also improves existing ones. Take the challenge of globalization. The aerospace industry had to scale up plane sizes to meet growing demands, resulting in huge wings that couldn't fit into most airports. To address this, they turned to nature, our planet's seasoned aeronautics expert with a 350-million-year head start. Eagles, with their efficient wing design, inspired winglets at the tips of airplane wings, enhancing both lift and fuel efficiency.
As we navigate the 21st century, our technological advances cover areas we hadn't even imagined at the millennium's start. And still, we look to nature for solutions, employing biomimicry to tackle our most complex problems.
Scientists and engineers are now developing bee-inspired swarm robotics. Bees are not only remarkable honey producers but also display incredible coordination and communication within their colonies. A fleet of mobile flying robots with similar decentralized "brains" could revolutionize tasks from environmental monitoring to search and rescue missions.
Why do we highlight this? Because we believe biomimicry in robotics is ready for the mainstream. As DeepTech investors, we're in a unique position to influence the direction of an entire industry. We've seen the space technology sector in India grow from infancy to maturity, and we're just as excited about what comes next. Whether it’s robots with the ability to morph like those with artificial muscles, aquatic robots modelled after jellyfish tasked with cleaning the ocean floor, or tiny robots designed to traverse our veins for disease diagnosis, we’re keen to talk. Let's partner to shape the future — one where biomimicry becomes a cornerstone of technological progress.