Gut reaction

The human body is a highly-tuned, complex set of processes which has evolved over the ages, developing the best techniques to perform a variety of functions in the most effective manner.

Researchers and development engineers are increasingly finding it a great source of inspiration for tapping into to help with real-life problems. The proliferation of research into, and latterly products coming to market using, neural networks as a way to make control decisions, is one example. This methodology works in the same way as the human brain has been doing for millennia.

The word ‘peristaltic’ is derived from ‘peristalsis’ — a medical phenomenon pertaining to the transportation of matter along the gut by a succession of waves of involuntary muscular contractions. In other words, the muscles squeeze material from one end of the ‘process’ to the other.

With that image in mind, think of how this process of squeezing a tube (as we used to with toothpaste before the advent of ‘pump action’ dispensers) can be harnessed to move materials.