Biological Senses as Inspiring Model for Biomimetic Sensors

Organisms are using numerous sensors, known as receptors and/or senses, to control every aspect of their life and functions. These nature's sensors have been improved over millions of years of evolution to make them enormously effective. They provide information that is used to warn against excessive and/or dangerous conditions; sense location in space; assure the control of the size of their bodies and organs and at what point to stop growing; etc. Recognizing the capability of biological sensors, scientists and engineers are making great efforts to mimic them or using them as a model for inspiration. While some successes have been reported and biologically inspired sensors are being used in the control of various systems, biological sensors are still far superior in many ways. This manuscript provides an introductory review of some of the biological sensors and their mimicked functionality version.