Abstract

Pollination is a crucial ecological process for the sustainment of both natural and agricultural systems. Approximately 85% of flowering plants depend on animal pollinators for successful reproduction. Over 75% of global food crops rely on pollinators, making them indispensable for sustaining human populations. The pollination process is accomplished by wind, water, insects, birds, bats, mammals, amphibians, and mollusks. The pollination process in angiosperms is robust because of the efficacious design features of flowers and pollinators. The axiomatic design offers a methodology to judge if a design is good or bad. This paper analyzes the design features of flowers and honeybees related to the pollination process. The functional requirements (FRs) of components of a flower and a honeybee are tabulated and mapped onto nature-chosen design parameters (DPs). The “independence axiom” of the axiomatic design methodology is applied to analyze couplings and to evaluate if the features of a flower and a honeybee form a good design (i.e., uncoupled design) or a bad design (i.e., coupled design). The analysis revealed that the flowers and honeybees are a good design to support pollination. This approach to judging whether nature’s entities are good or bad designs can be valuable for biomimicry studies. This approach can also be useful in teaching design considerations of biology and bio-inspired innovation.

Keywords

Pollination process, Axiomatic design, Nature design, Design evaluation, Sustainability.

Sagar Kamarthi

Affiliation

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Analysis of Design of Flowers and Honeybees in the Pollination Process