Biomimicry:
an optimisation catalyst for
transport and logistics
Logistics & transport are key for a large part of our economies and industries. It is a strategic area which represents €43 billion of France's GDP. The challenge of transformation and optimization is significant: the sector represents 31% of GHG emissions on a global scale.
DIAGNOSTIC
In our modern economies, transport and logistics are omnipresent. And this on several scales and through several vectors: maritime, fluvial, road, air or rail transport, storage and warehousing, hub-and-spoke, digitisation, etc.
Given the substantial volume of goods exchanged (368.5 billion tonne-kilometres of goods transited by road in France in 2018), the slightest optimisation can have significant economic and environmental effects.
The major optimisation challenges for the sector fall into 3 categories:
-
Better matching stocks to production;
-
Optimise goods routes and flow, as well as the technologies used;
-
Optimise space & storage.
In addition, there are two socio-environmental objectives which are gaining importance : on one hand automation and robotisation to cut costs and reduce drudgery, and on the other reduction of the often criticised ecological footprint. How can the transport and logistics sector integrate technical optimisation and sustainability in the pursuit of its development?
Biomimicry, transport and logistics:
A pioneer in the field, Bioxegy explains how biomimicry is a technological response of choice for imagining the future of goods flows and networks.
Flow management and optimisation, resilient and adaptive networks, distributed intelligence, data detection and interpretation, conditionning, packaging, robotics and industry 4.0: there is no shortage of areas of bio-inspired innovation in transport and logistics.
What insights can biomimicry provide into technilogical development?
Every day, nature ensures the mobility of billions of species, in constrained environments. To ensure the complex orchestration of ecosystems, living organisms must also guarantee extreme optimisated management of resources and information.
An expert at managing production and optimising inventory, often far-sighted, but also a just-in-time specialist, nature has developped unstoppable and sophisticated logistical mechanisms. Biologists from all fields are highlighting the ability of living beings to minimise empty spaces, take the most optimal routes, perfect storage systems, organise space and save energy...
Thus, there are a whole range of relevant solutions for shaping the logistics technologies of the future! European expert in biomimicry, Bioxegy shares its studies with you to explain how bio-inspired R&D is a significant lever in terms of innovation. Below, a non-exhaustive series of particularly interesting biomimetic horizons to help you plan ahead.
The contributions of biomimicry in transport and logistics concern
the following areas:
Managing &
Optimising Flow
Intelligence
Distributed
Resilient
And
Adaptive Networks
Detection
&
Optics
Robotics and
Apprehension
Design of
Systems (industrial design)
Packaging
&
Conditionning
Related Areas:
Tribology, Hydrodynamics,...