1. Get Your Project Started with Arduino
Class 4: Arduino and Biomimicry
June 12, 2014 Don Wilcher

2. Arduino and Biomimicry
Topics
What is Biomimicry?
Biomimicry and the Arduino
Make: Basic Arduino Projects book example
Let’s Make an Electronic Cricket: Temperature Sensing

3. What is Biomimicry? Definitions
 “Biomimicry," which literally means, "to imitate life.“[1]
Biomimicry is an innovation method that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies—new ways of living—that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul.[2]

4. What is Biomimicry?... References
[1]
[2]

5. Biomimicry and the Arduino example: Soft Robotics
Tufts University Soft Robotics Research
“Typically, man-made robotic systems are hard and inflexible, yet most animals are soft and flexible, giving animals a number of advantages. Using soft materials in robots will allow us to recreate these benefits in robots: the ability of a material to act as a sensor, increased biomimicry, a limited chance of a human being harmed while interacting with a robot, and biodegradability”.

6. Biomimicry and the Arduino example:Software Robotics

7. Tufts University Soft Robotics Publications

8. Make: Basic Arduino Projects book example

9. Let’s Make an Electronic Cricket: Temperature Sensing
Chapter 22. Electronic Cricket
Temperature Sensing
Did you know that you can tell the temperature from crickets? Crickets chirp faster when the temperature is warmer, and they chirp more slowly when the air is cooler. Let’s use our Arduino microcontroller skills and our knowledge about thermistors (Chapter 21) to build an electronic cricket. 

10. Electronic Cricket Block Diagram

11. Electronic Cricket BOM
Parts List
Arduino microcontroller
MakerShield kit
R1: negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor (green or black candy drop; part number 503)
R2: 10KΩ resistor (brown, black, orange stripes)
R3: 1KΩ resistor (brown, black, red stripes)
R4: 10K potentiometer
SPKR1: 8Ω mini speaker

12. Electronic Cricket Prototype

13. Electronic Cricket Fritzing Diagram

14. Electronic Cricket Circuit Schematic

15. Electronic Cricket Sketch/*
Electronic Cricket
Plays a pitch that changes based on a changing analog (temperature) input */
int expectedMax = 859;
int expectedMin = 330;
float fahrenheit = 0.0;
void setup() {
// initialize serial communications (for debugging only):
Serial.begin(9600); }
void loop() {
// read the sensor:
int sensorReading = analogRead(A0);
// print the sensor reading so you know its range
Serial.println(sensorReading);
// map the sensor analog input range
// to the output pitch range ( Hz)
// change the minimum and maximum input numbers below
// depending on the range your sensor's giving:

16. Electronic Cricket Sketch…
int thisPitch = map(sensorReading, expectedMin, expectedMax, 10, 100);
int thisTemperature =
map(sensorReading, expectedMin, expectedMax, -10, 40);
fahrenheit = (5.0/9.0) * (thisTemperature + 32);
Serial.println(fahrenheit);
// play the pitch twice, to imitate a cricket:
tone(9, thisPitch, 10);
// the delay is proportional to the temperature
// (faster chirps mean higher temperatures)
delay(60000/(fahrenheit * 1000));
delay(1); // delay in between reads for stability }