Bioinspired Material Approaches to Sensing

Bioinspired design is an engineering approach that involves working to understand the design principles and strategies employed by biology in order to benefit the development of engineered systems. From a materials perspective, biology offers an almost limitless source of novel approaches capable of arousing innovation in every aspect of materials, including fabrication, design, and functionality. Here, recent and ongoing work on the study of bioinspired materials for sensing applications is presented. Work presented includes the study of fish flow receptor structure and the subsequent development of similar structures to improve flow sensor performance. The study of spider air-flow receptors and the development of a spider-inspired flexible hair is also discussed. Lastly, the development of flexible membrane based infrared sensors, highly influenced by the fire beetle is presented, where a pneumatic mechanism and a thermal-expansion stress- mediated buckling-based mechanism are investigated. Other areas that are discussed include novel biological signal filtering mechanism and reciprocal benefits offered through applying the biology lessons to engineered working to engineered systems.