Transcript: Hello, I’m Brittany Hancock-Brown and I’m here to present to you the lateral line sensory system and the technology that the biology of this system has inspired.

The lateral line system is present in most fish, amphibian juveniles, and some amphibian adults.

The function of the lateral line system is to help these aquatic animals detect pressure gradients and water movement in their aquatic environment.

This system typically runs along the length of the fish and includes a line above and below the eyes of the fish.

Let’s take a closer look at the lateral line structure.

The neuromast is the functional unit of the system that is involved with mechanoreception.

Neuromasts can either be free standing on the outside of the body of the fish or, more commonly, located in mucus-filled lateral line canals just inside the skin.

The neuromast consists of a few important components. There are sensory cells which have cilia that reach out into the canal. The cilia are surrounded by a membrane called a cupula which provides contact of the sensory cells with the water around the fish.

Changes in water pressure and movement cause the cupula to shift in a single direction and trigger action potentials to be propagated in the nervous system. This stimulus provides the fish with the information it needs to adjust in relation to its environment.

Researchers in biology and engineering have been investigating ways to mimic the lateral line system because the self-adaptive properties could be very beneficial to aquatic autonomous robots.

Most autonomous vehicles (or AUVs) rely on sonar for sensing their environment. Sonar can cost thousands of dollars per component and can usually only detect objects at a distance. This can be especially troublesome in murky water.

Development in lateral line system technology can offer solutions to these problems.

Researchers at MIT have successfully developed lateral line system inspired arrays called “micro-electromechanical systems” or MEMS.

These micro sensors are made of nano fiber scaffold enclosed in a hydrogel polymer and closely resembles neuromasts.

MEMS are capable of recognizing shapes and tracking objects in a similar fashion to the lateral line system.

Let’s take a closer look at the production of MEMS.

MEMS utilize piezoelectric sensors which are designed to detect electrical charges produced by a material under mechanical stress. The piezoelectric sensors are mounted on liquid crystal polymer.

The engineers created a hydrogel that has very similar properties to the biological cupula of the neuromast. The application of the hydrogel greatly increases the accuracy of the flow sensors.

The developed sensors cost below $100 and are capable of close range object detection unlike their costly sonar counterparts.

The close range capabilities of MEMS allow for several useful potential applications.

One application is to be used in defense systems as a way to detect submarines. This is advantageous over sonar because it doesn’t compromise the instrument’s position.

Another application is to be used in AUVs that specialize in environmental monitoring. The AUV would be equipped with chemical and biological sensors to monitor various compounds and conditions that are important to the stability of the local ecosystem.

Biomemetic and bioinspired developments in technology, such as the one I discussed today, could be the key to our technological future.

Nature has spent millions of years refining biological systems and these refined systems exist all around us and show a massive variety of structure and function.

It just takes observation and creativity to come up with the technology that could bring us to a better future.