Bio-Inspired Electrolocation Based on Electrostatic Interfacial Enhancement

As one of the remote sensing abilities, electrolocation allows organisms to hunt, navigate, and interact with the environment by sensing electric fields. Mimicking this capability in artificial systems will provide a powerful strategy for remote object detection and inspection. However, current artificial approaches are restricted to conductive medium or charged targets, while electrolocation of uncharged targets in the non-conductive medium has not been achieved yet. In this work, an electrostatic interfacial enhancement-based electrolocation system (EIEEs) that fundamentally expands the scope of artificial electrolocation is proposed. Inspired by the electric organs of elasmobranch fish and the mechanosensory setae of insects, EIEEs employs electret materials as the electrostatic source and high-permittivity droplets as mechanosensory structures, locating objects with permittivities different from the medium. The proposed EIEEs can effectively detect uncharged solid/liquid objects without electrical connection, signal processing, or external power supply. Importantly, EIEEs also demonstrates the capability to detect multiple buried defects in objects, including gas in liquids, solid in liquids, liquid in liquids, and gas in solids, which has been largely unexplored in previous electrolocation systems. As a general-purpose remote sensing system for both surface and subsurface inspection, EIEEs can potentially provide a complementary modality for diverse scientific and technological domains.