Biomimicry of Venus Flytrap

1.      Adaptive Optics

The jaw of a Venus flytrap is the part of the plant where it captures its prey such as insects as shown in Figure 1. When an insect is drawn into the open jaws, it will tickles and stimulate the trigger hairs on the inner surface of the open jaws. As soon as an insect trigger two outgrowths in short succession, the open jaws will snap and traps the insect. The speed at which the jaws trap the insect is approximately 100ms.

Figure 1: Open Jaws with Trigger Hair

It is hard for any insects to escape the trap as the response speed of the trap is hard to beat. The response speed of stimulation through its trigger hair enable the Venus flytrap to capture its prey at high speed without fail. This is due to the fact that the microscopic structure of inner surface of the jaws are made up of tiny lobes and it has the ability to change shape from concave to convex at very high speed of 100ms. Figure 2 shows the shape changing process of the lobe.

Figure 2: Shape Changing of Lobes

The shape changing process of tiny lobes at high speed has been mimicked to create a complex lens where the reflectivity of the surface will change to focus by itself. This complex lens is known as adaptive lens which is implemented into adaptive optics method by astronomers. Adaptive optics comprise of deformable mirrors which can be controlled by computers to correct in real-time for distortion caused by the turbulence of the earth’s atmosphere.

A large strong beam of laser will be pointed to the targeted star as shown in Figure 3. The reflected light will directed to the adaptive optics system to capture the targeted image as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 3: Laser Emitted Towards Targeted Star

Figure 4: Adaptive Optics System

As a result, unclear image of stars captured through normal telescope can be converted to a sharper image by eliminating distorted wavefront as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Images Captured With and Without Adaptive Optics

2.      Morphing Turbine

The leaf of the Venus flytrap also known as the jaw which comes in a pair and it is mechanically connected to each other. As the jaws experience inplane contraction or expansion the curvature of the leave will experience change in shape as well. For example, trapping and opening of the jaws will result in change of the jaw’s curvature. When the insect triggered the trap, water flows between the inner and outer faces of the jaw, changing the curvature of the jaw in x direction as shown in Figure 6. Conversely, as the jaws close and trap the insect the curvature changes as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 6: Open State

Figure 7: Closed State

When the jaws are in open state, it has negative curvature and maximum elastic deformation energy. On the other hand, when the jaws are in closed state, it has positive curvature and minimum elastic deformation energy. Plot of curvature and elastic deformation energy for both states are shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Curvature and Elastic Deformation Energy

The shape changing ability of Venus flytrap in terms of curvature is mimicked and implemented into wind turbine of wind power plant. The conventional turbine as shown in Figure 9 is only able to generate movement when the wind is directed towards the correct direction. The Venus flytrap inspired turbine is known as morphing turbine as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 9: Conventional Turbine

Figure 10: Morphing Turbine

The rotor blades of the morphine turbine are made of smart material such as shape memory material which is able to adapt environment conditions and changes its shape. Single element blades of morphing turbine are stiff in structure and implement effective tailoring to produce effective pitch and structure as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Rotor Blades of Morphing Turbine

Regardless of any direction the wind-blown towards the wind turbine, the blades of the wind turbine is able to adapt the flow conditions and change its geometry. As a result, the morphing turbine changes its blade to a more aerodynamic geometry which results the turbine spinning with lesser resistance. Simple and low weight structure of the morphine turbine blades is able to generate power from wind with high efficiency. Cost per kilowatt of energy produced can be lowered, thus saving electrical consumption and cost for major factory industries etc.

3.      Magnetic Buttons

The jaws of the Venus flytrap are able to capture and trap its prey such insects of various sizes. Average leaf size of Venus flytrap can grow up to the range 3 cm to 8 cm as shown in Figure 12. If the growth of the plant is optimum, the leaf can reach up to the size of 13 cm which is almost the size of a human palm. Hence, a fully grown Venus flytrap is able to trap and capture a medium sized frog as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 12: Leaf Size of Venus Flytrap

Figure 13: Frog captured by a Venus Flytrap

When a Venus flytrap captures its prey, the jaws will shut tightly and form an air-tight seal to keep it digestive fluid within the boundary and bacteria out. The jaws will concealed and trap its prey, leaving the prey with no space for movement to escape. The flytrap will devour its food and will open its jaws approximately 8 to 11 days later. Since the shutting mechanism is effective as escaping from the trap by any prey is difficult due to its tightly concealed jaws. The leaf shape which forms the shutting mechanism of the Venus flytrap jaws is mimicked and applied as magnetic buttons for clothing. As shown in Figure 14, the buttons are designed in the shape of Venus flytrap jaws. Each pair of jaw consists of opposite poles of magnet namely: North and South. The buttoning mechanism is shown in Figure 15.

Figure 14: Magnetic Buttons

Figure 15: Buttoning Mechanism

The Venus flytrap inspired button allows easy and convenient buttoning and unbuttoning of shirt. Besides that, the tightly concealment of the buttons ensure that the buttons are not detached easily. Of course, the magnetic strength also reflects the attraction between the buttons. However, the factor which ensure the button conceal tightly is the contact surface area when the pair of button are attached together. The extra surface areas are formed between the “teeth” of the jaws when the pair of jaws closes. As a result, a higher surface area generates stronger magnetic strength which ensures the buttons are firmly attached.