Any phenomenon in nature is potential to be an inspiration for us to propose new ideas. Lateral line is a typical example which has attracted more interest in recent years. With the aid of lateral line, fish is capable of acquiring fluid information around, which is of great significance for them to survive, communicate and hunt underwater. In this paper, we briefly introduce the morphology and mechanism of the lateral line first. Then we focus on the development of artificial lateral line which typically consists of an array of sensors and can be installed on underwater robots. A series of sensors inspired by the lateral line with different sensing principles have been summarized. And then the applications of artificial lateral line systems in hydrodynamic environment sensing and vortices detection, dipole oscillation source detection, and autonomous control of underwater robots have been reviewed. In addition, the existing problems and future foci in this field have been further discussed in detail. The current works and future foci have demonstrated that artificial lateral line has great potentials of applications and contributes to the development of underwater robots.

自然界中的任何现象都有可能激发我们提出新想法的灵感。横向线是一个典型的例子，近年来引起了越来越多的兴趣。借助于侧线，鱼能够获取周围的流体信息，这对它们在水下生存，交流和狩猎具有重要意义。在本文中，我们首先简要介绍侧线的形态和机理。然后，我们专注于人工横线的开发，该横线通常由一系列传感器组成，可以安装在水下机器人上。总结了受侧线启发而具有不同感测原理的一系列传感器。然后将人工侧线系统应用于流体动力环境传感和涡旋检测，偶极子震源检测，水下机器人的自主控制已被审查。另外，对该领域中存在的问题和未来的焦点进行了进一步的详细讨论。当前的工作和未来的焦点已经表明，人工侧线具有巨大的应用潜力，并为水下机器人的发展做出了贡献。