Artificial Seal Whisker
Animal research activities conducted under NMFS permit 14535 |
The artificial seal whisker project is a joint effort with the University of Virginia’s Mechanical Engineering Department and the University of California Santa Cruz to detect and track underwater wakes using an array of bio-inspired sensors. Previous biological work found harbor seals are able to track wakes using only their whiskers. In this project, the seal whisker team is focused on understanding how seals sense wakes using their whiskers, designing a capacitance based whisker-like sensor, and designing the electrical backend printed circuit board for sensing, storing, and transmitting data. The biologically inspired sensor’s design is based on seal whiskers and previous effort in the field involving spider hairs and fish lateral lines. All components will be integrated in the Wake Information Detection and Tracking System (WIDTS) to be carried by a trained harbor seal for testing. |