Adaptive control of vibrissae-like mechanical sensors

This paper is a contribution to the modeling and the adaptive control of bio-inspired sensors which have the animal vibrissae as a paradigm. Mice and rats employ a sophisticated tactile sensory system to explore their environment in addition to their visual and auditory sense. Vibrissae in the mystical pad (region around the mouth) are used both passively to sense environmental influences (wind, objects) and actively to detect surface and object structures. Inspired by this particular version of tactile sense we consider the following three stages of a sensory system: perception, transduction and processing of information. We model this system in combining two existing mechanical models and obtain an uncertain nonlinear control system. An applied adaptive controller implements the ability of the animals to employ their vibrissae actively as well as passively. Numerical simulations show that the developed nonlinear model compensates noise signals and reacts strongly to sudden perturbations while guaranteeing a pre-specified control objective (working in active or passive mode).