Development of a bio-inspired angular acceleration sensor : towards the non-invasive investigation of inner ear pathologies

In this paper, we introduce the development of a bio-inspired system that mimics the angular acceleration sensor function provided by the vestibular system. The prototype is made of a Plexiglas piece that presents the pattern of a semicircular canal at scale 10, with a simplified geometry. A flexible piezoresistive cantilever integrated on polyimide substrate is used to model the electro-mechanical transduction of the cupula/hair cells system. The electro-mechanical response of the complete system is analyzed when submitted to both pulse and sine rotational excitations. It is demonstrated that the biomimetic system only responds to one rotational axis, and is also sensitive to the rotational direction. We also validate that the prototype actually responds to the expected medium vestibular frequencies (from 0.16Hz to 0.64Hz).