Development of Bioinspired Artificial Sensory Cilia
Given inspiration from the natural hair receptors of animals, sensors based on micro/nanofibers are considered as a significant and promising solution for improving the intelligence and automation of microrobots in the future. Thus, we introduce in this c
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Development of Bioinspired Artificial Sensory Cilia Weiting Liu, Fei Li, Xin Fu, Cesare Stefanini, and Paolo Dario
Abstract Given inspiration from the natural hair receptors of animals, sensors based on micro/nanofibers are considered as a significant and promising solution for improving the intelligence and automation of microrobots in the future. Thus, we introduce in this chapter the concept and design of some novel artificial hair receptors for the sensing system of microintelligent robots. The natural hair receptor of animals, also called cilium or filiform hair by different research groups, is usually used as a sensitive element for slight disturbance by insects, mammals and fishes, such as a detector for ambient vibration, flow or tactile information. At first, focusing on the development of biomimetic sensory abilities for an undulatory softbody lamprey-like robot, piezoresistive sensory elements based on highly soft silicone rubber matrix are presented. On the other hand, micro-artificial hair receptor based on suspended PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) microfibers is also designed to address useful applications for microrobots working in unstructured environments. Both these cilia shaped sensors show a reliable response with good sensibility to external disturbance, as well as a good prospect in the application on sensing system of mini/microbiorobots.
W. Liu (*) • F. Li • X. Fu The State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power Transmission and Control, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] C. Stefanini • P. Dario CRIM Lab, Polo Sant0 Anna Valdera, Pontedera (Pisa) 56025, Italy e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] D. Zhang (ed.), Advanced Mechatronics and MEMS Devices, Microsystems, 193 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-9985-6_10, # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
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Introduction
10.1.1 Sensory Hairs in Natural World Hair cells possess a characteristic organelle which consists of tens of hair-like stereocilia. So-called hair bundle is able to pivot around their base when a force is applied to the tips [1–6]. Such sensory hairs widely exist in the natural world [8, 9, 11, 24]. As the primary mechanotransducer, natural hair cell sensory receptors usually exist widely from the mammalian sense organs of hearing and balance (cochlea and vestibular organ, respectively) to lateral line organ of fishes and amphibians for water motion detection. For example, high performance detection systems composed of mechanoreceptive cuticular hairs of some arthropods are evolved to sense the slightest air displacement around them, such as that generated by approaching predators. Like the mechanoreceptive cerci on cricket’s abdomen which are sensitive to those slight air currents generated by a wasp’s wings or a toad’s tongue. Such sensory hairs alert the insects when a predator is sneaking around them, and give them a chance to escape from predation [3, 7]. Adult tropical wandering spider (Cupiennius salei) also has hundreds of
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