Many mammals use their vibrissae (whiskers) to tactually explore their surrounding environment. Vibrissae are thin tapered structures that transmit mechanical signals to a wealth of mechanical receptors (sensors) located in a follicle at each vibrissal base. A recent study has shown that—provided that the whisker is tapered—three mechanical signals at the base are sufficient to determine the three-dimensional location at which a whisker made contact with an object. However, creating biomimetic tapered whiskers has proved challenging from both materials and manufacturing standpoints. This study develops and characterizes an artificial whisker for use as part of a sensory input device that is a biomimic of the biological rat whisker neurosensory system. A novel manufacturing process termed surface conforming fiber drawing (SCFD) is developed to produce artificial whiskers that meet the requirements to be a successful mechanical and geometric mimic of the biological rat vibrissae. Testing the sensory capabilities of the artificial whisker shows improved performance over previous nontapered filaments. SCFD-manufactured tapered whiskers demonstrate the ability to predict contact point locations with a median distance error of 0.47 cm.

中文翻译：

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锥形聚合物晶须可实现三维触觉特征提取

许多哺乳动物使用它们的触须（胡须）来触觉地探索周围的环境。触须是薄的锥形结构，可将机械信号传输到位于每个触须基部毛囊中的大量机械受体（传感器）。最近的一项研究表明——假设晶须是锥形的——底部的三个机械信号足以确定晶须与物体接触的三维位置。然而，事实证明，从材料和制造的角度来看，创建仿生锥形晶须具有挑战性。本研究开发并表征了一种人造胡须，用作感觉输入设备的一部分，该设备是生物大鼠胡须神经感觉系统的仿生体。开发了一种称为表面顺应纤维拉伸 (SCFD) 的新型制造工艺，以生产符合要求的人造晶须，从而成功地模拟生物大鼠触须的机械和几何形状。测试人造晶须的感官能力表明其性能比以前的非锥形细丝有所提高。SCFD 制造的锥形晶须展示了预测接触点位置的能力，中值距离误差为 0.47 厘米。