Artificial lateral line

• US 7,644,624 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Issued: 01/12/2010
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): THOMPSON, JEWEL VERGIE
• Application Number:
  US11/824,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20080072682A1
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 737/56, 737/20, 737/19, 737/21, 422/50, 702/42, 324/158.1
• 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;

wherein said plurality of flow sensors include at least one artificial haircell.

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

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

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

2. 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;

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

6. 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;

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.

7. 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;

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.