Artificial lateral line

• US 20080072682A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois
• Inventors: Liu, Chang, Chen, Jack, Engel, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 7,644,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/756
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/28 by drag-force, e.g. vane type or impact flowmeter
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/6845 Micromachined devices
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 7/015 using microstructures, e.g. made of silicon
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 7/186 using microstructures
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 5/228 using tactile array force sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 13/00 Investigating surface or boundary effects, e.g. wetting power; Investigating diffusion effects; Analysing materials by determining surface, boundary, or diffusion effects scanning-probe techniques or apparatus G01Q
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2203/0676 Force, weight, load, energy, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 5/02 by measuring forces exerted by the fluid on solid bodies, e.g. anemometer
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 5/12 using variation of resistance of a heated conductor

Abstract

An artificial sensor comprises at least one substrate, and a plurality of flow sensors disposed on the at least one substrate for providing a plurality of spatial-temporally varying signals representing a hydrodynamic stimulus. The plurality of flow sensors are spatially distributed on the at least one substrate. A processor is coupled to the plurality of flow sensors for receiving the signals and determining spatial-temporal information from the received signals.

Claims

1. An artificial sensor, comprising:

at least one substrate;

a plurality of flow sensors disposed on said at least one substrate for providing a plurality of spatial-temporally varying signals representing a hydrodynamic stimulus, said plurality of flow sensors being spatially distributed on said at least one substrate; and

a processor coupled to said plurality of flow sensors for receiving the signals and determining spatial-temporal information from the received signals.

2. The artificial sensor of claim 1, wherein said plurality of flow sensors include at least one hot-wire anemometer sensor.

3. The artificial sensor of claim 2, wherein each of the at least one hot-wire anemometer sensor comprises:

a flow sensing element;

at least one cantilever disposed on the substrate and supporting said flow sensing element in a raised position with respect to said substrate.

4. The artificial sensor of claim 3, wherein said flow sensing element comprises a nickel wire.

5. The artificial sensor of claim 1, wherein said plurality of flow sensors include at least one artificial haircell.

6. The artificial sensor of claim 1, wherein said plurality of flow sensors comprise at least one hot-wire anemometer sensor, and at least one artificial haircell.

7. The artificial sensor of claim 1, wherein said plurality of flow sensors are disposed in a linear array.

8. The artificial sensor of claim 1, wherein said plurality of flow sensors are disposed in a two-dimensional array.

9. The artificial sensor of claim 1, wherein said plurality of flow sensors are disposed an array having a substantially constant spacing.

10. The artificial sensor of claim 1, wherein said plurality of flow sensors are arranged in a plurality of clusters, each of said plurality of clusters having at least two of said plurality of flow sensors, and further comprising:

a gel covering disposed over each of said plurality of clusters.

11. The artificial sensor of claim 1, further comprising:

a covering for said substrate, said covering including a canal disposed over said substrate and a plurality of pores extending from a surface of said covering to the canal;

wherein said plurality of flow sensors are disposed along the canal.

12. A method for flow sensing, comprising:

receiving spatial and temporal flow input signals from a plurality of flow sensors spatially disposed along a substrate;

comparing said received input signals to a predetermined flow source location;

based on said comparing, predicting a flow source location.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said comparing comprises:

comparing said received input signals to a predetermined flow source location;

if an error between said received input signals and the predetermined flow source location is minimal, determine that the predetermined flow source location is the predicted flow source location.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the predetermined flow source location is determined based on previously-received sensor input data.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the predetermined flow source location is determined based on a model.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the predetermined flow source location is determined based on previously-received sensor input data and a model.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the predetermined flow source location is determined based on a matrix created using previously-received sensor input data.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the predetermined flow source location is determined based on a model, and wherein the model is formed using linear interpolation.

19. A method for flow sensing, comprising:

receiving spatial and temporal flow input signals from a plurality of flow sensors spatially disposed along a substrate;

comparing said received input signals to a metric based on a heuristic;

determining a flow source location based on said comparing.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the heuristic comprises at least one of a peak fit heuristic, a quadratic-fit (Q-fit) heuristic, a sidelobe spread heuristic, a base spread heuristic, and a half spread heuristic.