Professor Taro Nakamura (Faculty of Science and Engineering, Department of Precision Mechanics) received the Award for Innovations Inspired by Nature from Sekisui Chemical. The award recognizes research which draws upon the wisdom of fundamental science learned from nature and utilizes natural mechanisms in manufacturing. This year, a total of 16 winners were selected from 336 applications for both this award and the Incentive Award.

Professor Nakamura received the award for the following research theme: Solid-liquid mixing learned from the intestinal structure / Research on achieving high functionality of peristaltic pumps which enable transport of high viscosity fluids.

In addition to this award-winning pump which uses the movement of human intestines as a motif, the Biomechatronics Nakamura Laboratory is developing other robots based on nature. Some examples include a worm robot capable of moving through small tubes and a snail robot capable of moving on walls or ceilings in all directions.

Please visit the following links for further information.

• Biomechatronics Nakamura Laboratory
• List of winners of the Innovations Inspired by Nature research support Program from Sekisui Chemical
• Taro Nakamura’s research seeds (seeds database)