Artificial Compound Eye for Clear Vision in Harsh Environment

Abstract Artificial compound eyes (CEs) exhibit unique optical properties, including wide‐angle vision, high light sensitivity, and enhanced motion detection, making them ideal for applications in drones, robots, and cameras. An easily fabricated, transparent, and self‐cleaning superhydrophobic compound eyes are designed to achieve clear vision in harsh environments. The CEs demonstrated exceptional motion tracking and imaging capabilities. A crawling spider and a swinging object are captured by the CE with a wide field of view. A clear vision is demonstrated by imaging 3D‐printed alphabetic letters through the CE in rainy and foggy environments. The superhydrophobic CE demonstrated fog resistance 6 times higher than a hydrophilic CE, and 14 times higher than a simple eye, and the projected image remains visible 3 times longer in heavy fog. A machine learning model is trained using 300 000 CE‐produced images of five vowels in various fog densities, showing CE‐produced images can better obtain information in a blurred situation. The superhydrophobic CEs are highly promising for applications in outdoor visualization, motion detection, and signal identification in adverse weather conditions.