Design and fabrication process for artificial lateral line flow sensors

In fish the lateral line is a sensory organ used to perceive water movement in the surrounding environment to localize prey or predators, to avoid obstacles, for schooling and more. The lateral line consists of many mechanoreceptors called neuromast which consist of groups of hair cells covered by a jelly-like cupula. There are two types of neuromasts: superficial neuromasts which are situated on the skin, and canal neuromasts which are located canals that are connected to the water outside of the fish through a series of pores. We review design aspects for MEMS fabrication of capacitive hair based flow sensor arrays opera¬ting in aquatic environments, biomimicking neuromasts. Exploiting information gained from nature building a system that allows the study of hydrodynamic mechanical interactions in complex noisy environments may help to uncover more about nature and how to make reliable artificial systems.