Sensors and Measurement:

Inspirations from Nature

A/Prof Gourab Sen Gupta

Engineering Programme Director
School of Engineering and Advanced Technology (SEAT)
Massey University
New Zealand
New Zealand
Biomimetics:
Science mimicking nature
 Wikipedia:
Biomimetics or biomimicry is the imitation of the
models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose
of solving complex human problems.
 Webster dictionary:
Biomimetics is the study of the formation, structure, or
function of biologically produced substances and
materials and biological mechanisms and processes
especially for the purpose of synthesizing similar
products by artificial mechanisms which mimic natural
ones

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An engineer’s simple definition:

Biomimetics transfers methods

found in nature into technical
systems

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Nature has inspired some
glorious inventions
human inventions paralleling nature
are virtually everywhere

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Inventions Inspired by Nature
 Velcro

Photographs by Scott Camazine; Custom Medical Stock Photo

http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-08-18/14-smart-inventions-inspired-by-nature-biomimicry.html#slide2
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Inventions Inspired by Nature
 Gecko Feet

Photograph by Mark Moffett/Minden Pictures; Courtesy Michael Bartlett and Alfred J. Crosby/UMass Amherst
http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-08-18/14-smart-inventions-inspired-by-nature-biomimicry.html#slide12
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Inventions Inspired by Nature
 Bullet Train

Photographs by Hiromi Okano/Corbis; West Japan Railway Co. via Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-08-18/14-smart-inventions-inspired-by-nature-biomimicry.html#slide4
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Inventions Inspired by Nature
 Spider Web Glass

Photograph by Monica Murphy; Illustration by Arnold Glas

http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-08-18/14-smart-inventions-inspired-by-nature-biomimicry.html#slide13
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Inventions Inspired by Nature
 Firefly LED

Photographs by Gail Shumway/Getty Images; Courtesy Nicolas André

http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-08-18/14-smart-inventions-inspired-by-nature-biomimicry.html#slide16
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Inventions Inspired by Nature
 Bombardier Beetle
 Their backsides have an amazing combustion chamber about
one millimetre long or smaller.
 They mix two chemicals: hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide to
cause a very fast reaction to heat up the water which is also
there.
 It tries to expand and vaporise but initially it can’t until an exhaust
valve, which is just a bit of cuticle, opens when the pressure rise
is sufficient to make it give way.
 When the exhaust valve goes, there is a vapour explosion.
 Spray gun
 All this happens in 1/400th or even 1/500th of a second.

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Inventions Inspired by Nature
 Bombardier Beetle
 As the explosion takes place there is an expansion which causes
the whole chamber to begin to pinch the inlet valve that stops
more stuff coming in.
 People are already using this pulse combustion idea for
engines
 We’re able to actually use the idea of the beetle, not on the
chemistry but on the physics of this valve system, to actually get
some very unique spray gun applications.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/interviews/interview/1139/

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 Lets see..

How nature and biology is a

source of inspiration for sensors
and measurements

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Honeybee Navigation
 Honey bees have many navigation tools that they can use: the sun, visual
landmarks, and the earth’s electromagnetic field.
 The photoreceptors in the dorsal region of the honeybee's compound eyes
exhibit a strong sensitivity to polarized light
 Honeybees are capable of using the pattern of polarized light that the sun
creates in the sky to navigate to a food source even on cloudy days
 They rely most heavily on physical landmarks: pattern matching
 Bees contain a region of magnetite in the front of their abdomens. They are
able to detect electromagnetic fields to regulate their internal clocks and to
guide them as they build combs within the hive

Warrant E., Nilsson D.-E.Wehner R., Labhart T.2006 Polarization vision. In Invertebrate vision
(eds Warrant E., Nilsson D.-E.), pp. 291–348. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Labhart T. 1980 Specialized photoreceptors at the dorsal rim of the honeybee's compound eye:
polarizational and angular sensitivity. J. Comp. Physiol. 141, 19–30.
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Plants can sense too….
 Plants also offer ideas for imitation and
they have evolved in various ways
 Some plants exhibit sensing and actuation
capabilities that we normally expect from
biological creatures.
 Mimosa and sensitive fern (onoclea sensibilis)
bend their leaves when touched
 There are also bug-eating plants with a
leaf-derived trap that closes the ‘door’
locking unsuspecting bugs that enter the
cage and become prey.

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Tactile Feeler/Antenna

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Tactile Feeler/Antenna
 Insect antennae are equipped with
mechanoreceptors
 Capable of retrieving information about the
 antennal vibration (by means of the Johnston’s organ)
 bending (by means of the chordotonal organs and
campaniform sensillae)

 Johnston's organ is a collection of sensory cells found in the second segment of the
antennae
 Chordotonal organs are stretch receptor organs in insects used to detect the position
of the body antennae which causes stretching on the cuticle of the Johnston's organ
 Campaniform sensilla are mechanoreceptors found in insects. When the exoskeleton
bends the resulting strain stimulates the sensilla.
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Science mimicking nature (bio mimicry)

 The ingenuity and inventions of nature’s tiny

organisms hold the keys to overcoming sensing
and measurement challenges
 A biology inspired branch of sensor research has
emerged (bio mimicry)
 Nature’s technology does not create pollution
and its manufacturing processes are sustainable
 Nature’s products are biodegradable and durable
 Designs enable multifunctional tasks

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Redundancy

 Having tens or even hundreds of parallel

receptor cells, improves the signal-to-noise
ratio through averaging.
 This also reduces the likelihood of error due
to loss of or failure of a receptor organ.
 A great lesson from nature is redundancy
 In most biological systems there are many
instances of redundancy.

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Biomimetic design

 Concepts from a non-engineering domain

such as biology has sparked inspiration and
innovation for a variety of technologies
 Bacteria, plants, insects, mammals, reptiles
and the like have diverse forms, solving a
variety of engineering functions
 May be considered adaptive systems with elegant
methods of sensing and communication

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Biological systems offer a lot….
 Nature has solved engineering problems such as self-healing
abilities, environmental exposure tolerance and resistance,
hydrophobicity, self-assembly, and harnessing solar energy.
 Biological systems offer exemplary methods of-
 Flight
 Imaging
 Sensing
 Adaptation to environment
 Locomotion
 Engineers have learned from these and created novel
technologies

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Biological systems offer a lot….
 Nature has been developing biological sensors
for billions of years
 Lasting solutions have evolved to fulfill unique
ecological niches, which make them ideal for study
and imitation.
 Not only is nature rich with sensing methods, it
provides strategies to use these sensors
 Biological sensors typically exhibit low energy
requirements, high sensitivity and redundancy.
 They exhibit parallel sampling and processing of
sensory information
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Sensor Categorization based on nature

 Exteroceptive Sensors
 Deal with the external world
 Where is something?
 How does it look?
 How big is it? (camera, laser rangefinder, haptic sensors)

 Proprioceptive Sensors
 Deal with self
 Am I perfectly horizontal? (inclinometer)
 Where am I? (GPS, localisation)
 How much is my joint bent? (encoders, flex sensors)
 Which way am I facing, how fast am I turning? (compass,
gyroscopes)
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Sensor Categorization based on nature

 Interoceptive Sensors
 Deal with self although without conscious
perception
 What is my battery charge? (voltmeter)

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Biology inspired sensing and
measurements - Examples

 Log-polar CCD motion tracking system

 Modeled after the primate’s retina.
 High density of photoreceptors in the center of the retina and
decreasing density moving towards the periphery
 Foveal vision
 The CCD imager has a circular shape instead
of the traditional rectangular shape with a
concentrated central region having high-resolution,
just like the fovea of the retina.
 Reduces cost of image acquisition
 lower number of pixels, shorter processing time and lower power
consumption

Jun Ohta, Smart CMOS Image Sensors and Applications, CRC Press (2007), pp. 93 - 136
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Log-Polar CCD Camera

F. Berton, G. Sandini, G. Metta, Anthropomorphic Visual Sensors, Encyclopedia of

Sensors, American Scientific Publishers, Vol. X, pp. 1-16 25
Biology inspired sensing and
measurements - Examples
 Sonar receiver system
 Modeled after dolphin echolocation.
 The teeth of the lower jawbone form arrays of resonant
receivers which allow for beam forming with the required
delays derived acoustically by the jawbone fatty channels
 As sound waves travel through the water, they are
absorbed by the dolphin’s jaw and are directed up along
this fatty canal.
 With a jaw bone on each side of its head, a dolphin is able to
use its jaws much like we would use pinna on the sides of our
head – allowing them to pinpoint where a sound is coming
from.

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Dolphin’s acoustic receiver

Peter Dobbins, Dolphin sonar – modelling a new receiver concept, Bioinspiration &
Biomimetics, 2 (2007) 19-29
Morgana M. Trexler, Ryan M. Deacon, Artificial Senses and Organs: Natural Mechanisms
and Biomimetic Devices, in Biomimetics: Nature-Based Innovation, Ed. Yoseph Bar- 27
Cohen, CRC Press (2012), pp.35 - 94
Biology inspired sensing and
measurements - Examples
 Night-vision goggles
 Modeled after a fish known as loosejaws
 Uses a night-vision goggles to snoop on
other fish
 Using lens filter and fluorescent material, it
produces red light with such a long
wavelength that it is almost infrared
 Most other fish do not see the red light
because their eyes do not have the
necessary visual pigment.
 Loosejaws, on the other hand, have a
special membrane layer on their eyes to
detect red light.

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Biology inspired sensing and
measurements - Examples
 Fly eyes and solar panels
 Fly (and moth) eyes have a series of parallel ridges and grooves which
allow light to pass through, instead of being reflected
 This techno trick allows the fly to soak up light coming from all different
angles, helping it to see in very low light levels.
 Scientists have used this technique to develop a new synthetic light-
capturing material.
 When used on solar panels, this synthetic material increases the ability
of the panels to capture sun’s photon energy by 10%

Wilson, S.J. Wilson; Hutley, M.C. (1982). "The Optical Properties of 'Moth Eye' Antireflection
Surfaces". Journal of Modern Optics 29 (7): 993–1009.

Karl S. Kruszelnicki, Fly eyes inspire solar panel,

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/12/01/4361433.htm

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Blowfly eyes

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Current Research:
A few examples

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Beetle’s IR Sensor
 The beetle Melanophila acuminata can detect
infrared radiation (IR) from distant forest fires by
specialized IR sensilla in two metathoric pit organs
containing about 60 to 70 dome-shaped sensilla.
 Incoming IR radiation is absorbed in the complex
structure of the sensilla and pressurize the water
inside the spongy intermediate layer.
 The pressure rise deforms the membrane of the dendritic
tip of a mechanosensitive cell.

H. Schmitz, H. Bleckmann, The photomechanic infrared receptor for the

detection of forest fires in the beetle Melanophila acuminata (Coleoptera:
Buprestidae), Journal of Comparative Physiology A (1998) 182: 647-657

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Beetle inspired IR Sensor
 Research done at Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and
Institute for Zoology, Bonn University, Germany
 The cavity of the technical sensor is closed on one side by a window and on the
other side by a thin membrane.
 The IR radiation being absorbed produces a change in pressure or volume,
respectively, due to the change of the state of the fluid.
 The deflection of the membrane caused by this pressure increase can be read out
by, e.g., a capacitive detector or a tunneling displacement transducer.

Bousack, Herbert, Kahl, Thilo, Schmitz, Anke,

Schmitz, Helmut, Towards Improved Airborne
Fire Detection Systems Using Beetle Inspired
Infrared Detection and Fire Searching Strategies,
Micromachines 2015, 6, 718-746;
doi:10.3390/mi6060718

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Elephantnose fish Electrolocation
 The elephant-nose fish Gnatonemus peterssii, use
electric fields to orient in the absence of light.
 The fish’s electrolocation system consists of an electric
organ in the tail to produce the electric field, numerous
electroreceptors in the skin to sense the field and the
brain for signal processing.
 By using this ‘active electrolocation’ the fish can
investigate the electrical properties, the distance, the
size and the shape of targets.
 Mimicking these sensing features can generate
miscellaneous sensors, e.g. a sensor to localize
targets or a distance sensor.
 Potential applications are a bionic
electrolocation sensor for coronary diagnostics

http://www.fz-juelich.de/pgi/pgi-8/EN/Research/06-Biomimetic Sensors/02-
Electrolocation_artikel.html?nn=898248
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Conclusion
 Companies seeking breakthrough products tend to
ignore the greatest invention machine in the universe:
life’s more than three-billion-year history of evolution by
natural selection
 When you set out to sense or measure something, ask
yourself “how will nature do it?”

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