Abstract
This paper presents the design, theoretical analysis, simulation verification, fabrication and prototype characterization of a novel biaxial bionic hair flow sensor based on resonant sensing. Firstly, the device architecture, mainly consists of a polymer hair post, a silicon micro signal transducer and a glass substrate, is described, the theoretical simplified model is established and the mechanical sensitivity to air flow is deducted. Then, the structure simulations based on Ansys software are implemented to preliminarily verify the feasibility of the proposed sensor conception and optimize the structure parameters simultaneously. Subsequently, a closed-loop control scheme based on digital phase-locked loop and an amplitude demodulation algorithm of oscillatory flow velocity based on the least mean square method are proposed to transform and extract the air flow signal, and then verify it by circuit simulations based on SIMULINK. Finally, the fabricated prototype is illustrated and comprehensively tested. The tested prototype possesses an x-axis scale factor of 1.56 Hz/(m/s)2 and a y-axis scale factor of 1.81 Hz/(m/s)2 for the steady air flow and an x-axis detection threshold of 43.27 mm/s and a y-axis detection threshold of 41.85 mm/s for the oscillatory air flow.
Highlights
Cilia are hair-like microstructures found in insects and other living organisms
In [12], inspired by the fish lateral line system, an artificial lateral line system based on the bionic hair sensor with a resonance readout was designed by using this structure
When the proposed hair sensor is arranged in the oscillatory air flow, the frequency difference of the double-ended tuning fork (DETF) is an alternating current signal that requires a specific demodulation scheme [12]
Summary
Cilia are hair-like microstructures found in insects and other living organisms. Biologists claim that creatures evaluate their extremely sensitive cilia system to extract and transmit physical signals to biological mechanoreceptors, so as to measure the external water or air flow velocity, acceleration and even angular velocity, and to assist the motion attitude control of natural organisms [1]. Researchers and engineers believed that bionic hair sensors are a promising solution to realize flow measurement with high sensitivity, large dynamic range and low power consumption [2,3]. Various approaches, such as the capacitive [4,5], piezoelectricity, piezoresistance [6,7,8,9,10]. A distributed array of presented sensors is proposed to implement the flow field mapping and the tested prototype demonstrates a measurable water flow velocity range of 0.1~1 m/s and a resolution of 0.5 mm/s.
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