Artificial Lateral Line And Hydrodynamic Object Tracking

We report the development of biologically inspired artificial lateral line sensor for underwater flow field imaging. The artificial lateral line is based on an array of integrated, elevated hotwire elements. The static and dynamic behavior of the array, packaged as superficial sensors or canal embedded ones, are discussed. We have developed a complete system and demonstrated mimicking the functions of “ soft touch” of real biological lateral line. The sensor array can track the distance and location of an oscillating dipole source.