Bio-Inspired Miniature Direction Finding Acoustic Sensor

Bio-Inspired Miniature Direction Finding Acoustic Sensor

A narrowband MEMS direction finding sensor has been developed based on the mechanically coupled ears of the Ormia Ochracea fly. The sensor consists of two wings coupled at the middle and attached to a substrate using two legs. The sensor operates at its bending resonance frequency and has cosine directional characteristics similar to that of a pressure gradient microphone. Thus, the directional...

Bio-Inspired Tail in Miniature Robots

Inertial tails (or appendages) have been previously demonstrated in ground robotics for retaining stability after an impact [1], maintaining orientation during jumps and falls [24], for fast turns and increased maneuverability [5,6]. Here, I will discuss implementation of tails on miniature robots where the traditional control/steering is not applicable due to the size limitations. An off-the-s...

Nature-inspired Acoustic Sensor Projects

The following pages describe our nature-inspired, or biomimetic, sonars. The biological features incorporated in our sonars include: 1. Binaural reception for accurate bearing determination. 2. Wide bandwidth pulses for object recognition. 3. Echo-controlled sensor mobility. 4. Separate transmitter and receivers for sensitivity of low-level echoes from close-by objects. 5. Nonlinear signal proc...

Direction Finding Using Multiple Mems Acoustic Sensors

Optimization Of Bio-inspired Hair Sensor Arrays

Crickets use a pair of hairy appendages on their abdomen called cerci, each of which contains numerous mechano-receptive filiform hairs (Fig. 1). These sensitive hairs can respond even to the slightest air movements, down to 0.03 mm/s, generated by the approaching predators and initiating an escape mechanism in the crickets [1]. Bio-mimicking the cricket cerci, arrays of artificial hair sensors...