The Mercedes-Benz Bionic Car:

• Unique research project by biologists and engineers
• Vehicle study with the streamlined contours of the boxfish
• Outstanding aerodynamics with a Cd value of 0.19
• Diesel engine with a particulate filter and innovative SCR technology
• Bionic design process for intelligent lightweight construction

Once again, Bucky's fish inspired concept of a super streamlined, three wheeled vehilcle has not not only re-entered  contemporary imagination but has been protoyped by one of the largest auto manufacturer's in the world, Daimler Chrysler. It is also headed toward a manufacturing run by one of the smallest auto related companies (Accelerated Composites),  a Carlsbad-based startup, see previous posting.

Mercedes' intent to design with nature in mind, bringing together the disciplines of biology and auto engineering appears to be a company breakthrough  and a harbinger of great things to come when "bionic design" becomes more of a mainstream industrial strategy. The article below appears in the 'special report' section of the Daimler Chrysler website.


Washington, D.C., June 07, 2005

Thinking the unthinkable. Looking beyond the horizon. Leaving familiar paths and giving new ideas a chance: that is the philosophy of DaimlerChrysler, the technological leader among automobile manufacturers.

For more than 100 years the technological lead of the Stuttgart company has been based on the creativity of its engineers – and on their enthusiasm for visions. None of this has changed to the present day, and DaimlerChrysler specialists take up the challenge to shape the future of the automobile on a daily basis. There are no limits here: in order to create trailblazing innovations for even more safety, environmental compatibility and comfort, they research all the possibilities offered by technology and science. For experience has shown that only free, interdisciplinary thinking leads to really outstanding results.

One such project was the Mercedes-Benz bionic car, a concept vehicle based on examples in nature, in which DaimlerChrysler has also transferred the diesel engine technology of the future to a fully functioning and practical car for everyday use.

Bionics – a combination of biology and technology – is a quite recent field of research which has nonetheless already made remarkable progress possible in different areas. Nature has provided ideas for high-strength materials, low-friction surfaces, dirt-repellent coatings and practical Velcro fastenings, for example.

Many of these inventions are based on more or less accidental discoveries from the animal and plant world. For the first time in the case of the Mercedes-Benz bionic car, the engineers at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center (MTC) and DaimlerChrysler Research looked for a specific example in nature whose shape and structure approximated to their ideas for an aerodynamic, safe, spacious and environmentally compatible car. In other words, this was not a matter of detailed solutions but of a complete transfer from nature to technology – a first.

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