3-D biomimetic hair sensors and actuators

Nature and biology utilize a variety of structures, materials, and schemes to achieve excellent sensing performance with extreme reliability and robustness. One structure used more commonly in nature is the “hair”. Hair-like sensors and actuators are used for acoustic, chemical, flow, pressure, and gas sensing, among others. Hair-like actuators and passive structures are also used for thermal management, filtering, fluid flow control, etc. This paper discusses opportunities and approaches for developing hair-like biomimetic structures for sensing and actuation.