E-Whiskers.

Flying spheres could have camera and whiskers In a remarkable feat of bio mimicry, scientists in California have developed ‘e-whiskers’. These allow robots to feel their way into tight spaces. 

Whiskers provide a surprising amount of data for cats and other creatures by operating like biological sensors to detect moving air. E-whiskers are highly responsive tactile sensor networks made from carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles that resemble the whiskers of cats and other mammals In the same way, artificial e-whiskers detect movement using powerful sensors made from tiny films of carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles. Rise of the robotic cat ? as Scientists create electronic whiskers to help droids manoeuvre in tight spaces gauge measurements. Fibres are coated in carbon nanotubes to make them conduct electricity. The fibres are also coated with silver nanoparticles to give them flexibility. Combined, these materials can detect pressure as slight as a single Pascal - about the pressure exerted on a table surface by a £5 note. Our robotic overlords are unlikely to look like the demonic droids imagined in films - in fact they may even come with whiskers. These e-whiskers respond to pressure as slight as a single Pascal - about the pressure exerted on a table surface by a £5 note.‘Whiskers are hair-like tactile sensors used by certain mammals and insects to monitor wind and navigate around obstacles in tight spaces,’ said lead researcher Ali Javey.

Seven e-whiskers, vertically placed, were used for 3D-mapping airflow by researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California at Berkeley. Artificial e-whiskers detect movement using elastic fibres coated in tiny films of carbon nanotubes to create an electrically conductive network.The fibres are also coated with silver nanoparticles to give them flexibility and make them responsive to movement. The elastic fibres are flexible enough to  provide a large 'push-back' and therefore can undergo huge amounts of strain in response to the smallest applied pressures. Combined, these materials can detect pressure as slight as a single Pascal - about the pressure exerted on a table surface by a £5 note. ‘Our electronic whiskers consist of high-aspect-ratio elastic fibres coated with conductive composite films of nanotubes and nano particles. ‘In tests, these whiskers were 10 times more sensitive to pressure than all previously reported capacitive or resistive pressure sensors.’The research team used a carbon nano tube paste to form an electrically conductive network with that could bend.

They then loaded a thin film of silver nanoparticles to this carbon nanotube to give it a high sensitivity to movement. ‘The strain sensitivity and electrical resistivity of our composite film is readily tuned by changing the composition ratio of the carbon nanotubes and the silver nano particles,’ Professor Javey said. Whiskers provide a surprising amount of data through for cats and other creatures by operating like biological sensors to detect moving air. ‘The composite can then be painted or printed onto high-aspect-ratio elastic fibers to form e-whiskers that can be integrated with different user-interactive systems.’To prove their results, the research group successfully used their e-whiskers to demonstrate highly accurate 2D and 3D mapping of wind flow.In the future, they claim e-whiskers could be used for mapping of nearby objects and could lead to wearable sensors for measuring heartbeat and pulse rate. ‘Our e-whiskers represent a new type of highly responsive tactile sensor networks for real time monitoring of environmental effects,’ Professor Javey said.‘The ease of fabrication, light weight and excellent performance of our e-whiskers should have a wide range of applications for advanced robotics, human-machine user interfaces, and biological applications.’