Hypersensitive pressure sensors inspired by scorpion mechanosensory mechanisms for near-body flow detection in intelligent robots

Sensitivity enhancement for pressure sensors over a broad linear range can improve sensing performance for a wide range of applications such as health monitoring and artificial intelligence. Here, inspired by the high-precision mechanosensory mechanism of the scorpion, a bioinspired piezoresistive pressure sensor (BPPS) is reported for the synergistic enhancement of sensitivity and linearity at 65.56 millivolts per volt per kilopascal and 0.99934, respectively, in a pressure range from 0 to 500 kilopascals. The BPPS can distinguish laminar, transitional, and turbulent flows as well as identify approaching objects of different shapes with an accuracy exceeding 85.42% by integrating a wavelet transform algorithm and the ResNet18 deep learning network. As a proof of concept, BPPS has been engineered in a hexapod robot to enable near-body flow field sensing for active collision avoidance. This work underscores the potential to leverage key design concepts inspired by living insects for improved sensing performance and offers structural insights for other high-precision sensors.