Mathematical models of bio‐inspired rotatable sensors with elasticities for object scanning

Abstract

AbstractRats and mice use some special tactile hairs in their snout region for a non‐visual exploration of their environment. These hairs, known as mystacial macro‐vibrissae, are each embedded in their own elastic support, called follicle‐sinus complex. This consists of several mechanoreceptors converting tactile information into neural impulses for the central nervous system (CNS). Using their vibrissae, rats and mice are capable of detecting distances to objects, object contours and surface textures. Due to this outstanding ability vibrissae frequently serve as a paradigm for technical tactile sensors. In this paper, we present a model for object shape scanning and contour reconstruction. Here, we especially focus on the important property “elasticity” of the follicle‐sinus complex, which has rarely been taken into account for object scanning in literature. We set up models for three different elastic supports. Based on solutions of the arising boundary‐ and initial‐value problems, we simulate the scanning process, investigate the related support reactions during a single rotational quasi‐static sweep of a straight vibrissa along a strictly convex object contour and reconstruct its shape. In doing this, we investigate the influence of the different elasticities of the model on the scanning and reconstruction procedure.