Animal vibrissae: Modeling and adaptive control of bio-inspired sensors

Abstract

The reception of vibrations is a special sense of touch, important for many insects and vertebrates. The latter realize this reception by means of hair-shaped vibrissae in the mystacial pad, to acquire tactile information about their environments. The system models have to allow for stabilizing and tracking control while nevertheless being able to detect superimposed solitary excitations. Controllers have to be adaptive in view of both the randomness of the external signals to be suppressed and the uncertainty of system data. We presents mechanical models and an improved adaptive control strategy that avoids identification but renders the system sensitive. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.