Journal
JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT MATERIAL SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURES
Volume 26, Issue 1, Pages 38-46Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/1045389X14521702
Keywords
Blind cavefish; bio-inspiration; soft polymer membrane; microelectromechanical systems; underwater sensing
Categories
Funding
- Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) through the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling (CENSAM) IRG
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article reports the development of flexible arrays of soft membrane microelectromechanical system pressure sensors that are inspired by the functional implications of the lateral line organ present in the blind cavefish. Being blind, this fish relies on the lateral line of pressure gradient sensors present on its body to sense the surrounding obstacles. A flexible, low-powered, lightweight, sensitive yet robust microelectromechanical system sensor array is fabricated using liquid crystal polymer material. Such arrays can guide an autonomous underwater vehicle to navigate in unsteady and dirty-water environments. The object detection abilities of the blind cave characin fish are investigated through proof-of-concept experiments conducted on the live fish. Similarly, the abilities of the microelectromechanical system array in determining the velocity and distance of an underwater object are investigated by testing them in water tunnel. Experimental results demonstrate the array's ability to detect the velocity of moving underwater objects with a high accuracy and an average error of only 2.5%.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available