Many elegant solutions to engineering problems have been inspired by biological phenomena. Robots have been modeled after insects and other organisms, and leaves have served as models for solar membrane folding. Biological models have also been used to develop novel materials, actuators, and sensors. However, it is not always clear how the particular biological models were identified or selected. For example, an engineer open to using biological models for design might not know how to find relevant biological analogies for a given design. Therefore, a general method was developed for which analogous biological phenomena can be identified and used on any design problem.