A biomimetic accelerometer inspired by the cricket's clavate hair
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Published on: June 17, 2014
H Droogendijk1, M J de Boer2, R G P Sanders2
1MESA Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands h.droogendijk@utwente.nl.
Abstract:
Crickets use so-called clavate hairs to sense (gravitational) acceleration to obtain information on their orientation. Inspired by this clavate hair system, a one-axis biomimetic accelerometer has been developed and fabricated using surface micromachining and SU-8 lithography. An analytical model is presented for the design of the accelerometer, and guidelines are derived to reduce responsivity due to flow-induced contributions to the accelerometer's output. Measurements show that this microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) hair-based accelerometer has a resonance frequency of 320 Hz, a detection threshold of 0.10 ms(-2) and a dynamic range of more than 35 dB. The accelerometer exhibits a clear directional response to external accelerations and a low responsivity to airflow. Further, the accelerometer's physical limits with respect to noise levels are addressed and the possibility for short-term adaptation of the sensor to the environment is discussed.
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