P.A. Löthman
European University of Applied Sciences Hamburg,
Germany
Keywords: biomechatronics, manifesto, classic biomechatronics, divide, microscale, cellular machines, biological systems
Summary:
A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus, or promotes a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes the author believes should be made. The new idea, perspective or changes I would like to argue for in this contribution is the one of “BioMechatronics” (capital B, capital M) which is that what classical Biomechatronics could have been. However, it has developed into a subfield of Biomedical Engineering via the venue of Biomimetics, Biomechanics etc. In this contribution I argue for the plausibility of a novel academic field called “BioMechatronics” which relates to Biology and Medicine as something much more than just an auxiliary discipline for the sake of Mechatronics as is stated in the definition of Biomechatronics; “Biomechatronics is using biomedical knowledge for the development and optimisation of mechatronic systems.” (Witte et al. 2004) The background is that classical Biomechatronics has ‘gone astray’ - actually even from the very beginning starting in 1982 as Hugh Herr introduced the term for the first time. Bionic and Biomechanics played and play an important for early and present Biomechatronics and the goal seemed to be Biomedical Engineering. Classical Biomechatronics is macroscopic in nature and excludes other scales. It is “outside” (exosceletons) and not “inside” (cellular machines). It is obvious that even the biological system itself is excluded from classical Biomechatronics The author argue that biological systems - be it single cell or multiple cell organisms, organelles or molecular motors – themselves are BioMechatronics systems and that their parts (aquaporin channels, oxygen sensors, ATP-ADP Energy supply, DNA information storage etc.) are just as “BioMechatronics Functional Elements” as BioSensors, BioActuators, BioMEMS or BioNEMS of technical systems. The “Manifesto of BioMechatronics” is an attempt to argue for the soundness of its implementation and that much of conducted current research actually fits the BioMechatronics view more closely than other fields. Furthermore, BioMechatronics is inclusive and “unifies” existing fields such as Nanomedicine, Nanobiotechnology especially by the completeness that BioMechatronics system exhibit compared to each of the forementioned fields. This manifesto promotes the new idea of BioMechatronics and necessary changes and how this view supports science and engineering.