BioInspired! So What? Now What!

Seminar by Prof. Dr. Tae-il Kim, School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University SKKU, Korea

Arachnids are among the most sensitive creatures on the Earth.  Especially, their mechano-sensory system embedded in the crack-shaped slit organ made of stiff exoskeleton over a cuticular pad near leg joints is known to sense a tiny variation of mechanical stress, thereby, serve as an ultra-sensitive vibration sensor.  In this talk, we introduce spider inspired mechanosensors having an ultrasensitivity, durability. It also serves as a multifunctional sensor for a vibration and pressure sensing. The device fabricated on a sheet of plastic is reproducible, mechanically flexible and shape-deformable so that they can be easily mounted on human skin as skin electronic with multi-pixel arrays. We also show that the sensory system is applicable for highly selective speech pattern recognition even in noisy environment (~82 dB). The spider inspired sensory system would provide versatile novel applications utilized in ultra-high sensitivity on displacements. Moreover, recent accomplishment about biomimetic works will be presented.