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Abstract
In nature, there are several examples of sophisticated sensory systems to sense flows, e.g., the vibrissae of mammals. Seals can detect the flow of their prey, and rats are able to perceive the flow of surrounding air. The vibrissae are arranged around muzzle of an animal. A vibrissa consists of two major components: a shaft (infector) and a follicle–sinus complex (receptor), whereby the base of the shaft is supported by the follicle-sinus complex. The vibrissa shaft collects and transmits stimuli, e.g., flows, while the follicle-sinus complex transduces them for further processing. Beside detecting flows, the animals can also recognize the size of an object or determine the surface texture. Here, the combination of these functionalities in a single sensory system serves as paragon for artificial tactile sensors. The detection of flows becomes important regarding the measurement of flow characteristics, e.g., velocity, as well as the influence of the sensor during the scanning of objects. These aspects are closely related to each other, but, how can the characteristics of flow be represented by the signals at the base of a vibrissa shaft or by an artificial vibrissa-like sensor respectively? In this work, the structure of a natural vibrissa shaft is simplified to a slender, cylindrical/tapered elastic beam. The model is analyzed in simulation and experiment in order to identify the necessary observables to evaluate flows based on the quasi-static large deflection of the sensor shaft inside a steady, non-uniform, laminar, in-compressible flow.
Highlights
The sensing of flows is a common task in industry and science
The wind tunnel is controlled by an open-loop strategy, so it is possible that an object inside the test section causes a pressure difference and, a difference in the flow velocity which is not captured by the control
This can be explained by the presence of a lift force in addition to the drag force, especially for D03, where the shaft is deflected in flow direction the projected obstruction area A⊥ in y-direction is increasing
Summary
The sensing of flows is a common task in industry and science. There are lots of conventional measurement principles like a Prandtl probe or drag force probe sensors [1]. Animals use different mechanisms to detect flows as well. There are the lateral lines of sharks, the trichobothria of spiders or the vibrissae of mammals [2]. The different mechanisms have different advantages and disadvantages. Vibrissae are used for the recognition of object contours or to identify features of a surface texture [3,4]. The all-round nature of these hairs and their sensitivity to different kinds of stimuli yield a powerful sensor. The natural paragon is already adapted to artificial sensor systems to scan objects or to autonomous robots for navigating in an unknown environment [5]
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