An Artificial Lateral Line Sensor Using Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Membrane for Oscillatory Flow Sensing

Flow sensing is an essential technology used in marine science. Fish live in fluid environments. Therefore, it is not surprising that fish have developed abilities to sense flow. We designed an artificial lateral line sensor for oscillatory flow sensing by mimicking the lateral line organ of a fish. This sensor is composed of an artificial cupula that mimics the cupula of neuromasts, cantilever beam that mimics hair-like cilia, and perception unit that mimics hair cells. We designed four different cupula shapes and discussed the influence of the artificial cupula shape on the sensing performance. We analyzed the structure of the cantilever beam to determine its length. The perception unit uses a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane as the piezoelectric sensing element. To protect the sensor from harsh fluid environments, a well-designed waterproofing scheme was proposed. Finally, a dipole stimulus was chosen for experimental validation. An experimental setup was constructed, and several experiments were conducted to prove the different abilities of the proposed sensor. The proposed sensor demonstrated a threshold sensing limit of 3.4 mm/s in oscillatory flow sensing.