Distant touch hydrodynamic imaging with an artificial lateral line.
Nearly all underwater vehicles and surface ships today use sonar and vision for imaging and navigation. However, sonar and vision systems face various limitations, e.g., sonar blind zones, dark or murky environments, etc. Evolved over millions of years, fish use the lateral line, a distributed linear array of flow sensing organs, for underwater hydrodynamic imaging and information extraction. We demonstrate here a proof-of-concept artificial lateral line system. It enables a distant touch hydrodynamic imaging capability to critically augment sonar and vision systems. We show that the artificial lateral line can successfully perform dipole source localization and hydrodynamic wake detection. The development of the artificial lateral line is aimed at fundamentally enhancing human ability to detect, navigate, and survive in the underwater environment.
Yang
Yingchen
Y
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, and Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Chen
Jack
J
Engel
Jonathan
J
Pandya
Saunvit
S
Chen
Nannan
N
Tucker
Craig
C
Coombs
Sheryl
S
Jones
Douglas L
DL
Liu
Chang
C
D000818:Animals; D032701:Biomimetics; D005399:Fishes / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D053403:Lateral Line System / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014110:Touch; D014867:Water
D014867:Water