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eAir sensors, the gold strips on the round panel, mimic the lotus leaf impact, a phenomenon the place water droplets roll of the leaf’s floor. | Supply: NUS
Researchers on the Nationwide College of Singapore (NUS) have developed eAir, an aero-elastic strain sensor impressed by lotus leaf’s water-repelling constructions. eAir sensors supply elevated precision and reliability for medical functions over conventional sensors.
Standard strain sensors usually wrestle with accuracy and consistency. They’ll return various outcomes when the identical strain is utilized repeatedly or overlook delicate adjustments in strain. Moreover, they’re usually created from stiff and mechanically rigid supplies.
The NUS analysis crew wished to handle these drawbacks in strain sensing and drew inspiration from a pure phenomenon referred to as the lotus leaf impact, the place water droplets simply roll off the floor of lotus leaves. This occurs due to the lotus leaves’ minuscule, water-repelling constructions.
The crew mimicked the lotus leaf impact by reimagining the water-repelling capabilities of the lotus leaf as a pressure-sensing instrument. The eAir sensor has an air spring design, by which the sensor homes a trapped layer of air. This air varieties an air-liquid interface upon contact with the sensor’s liquid.
Aso, as exterior strain will increase, the air layer compresses. A floor therapy permits frictionless motion of the interface inside the sensor, which triggers a change in electrical indicators that precisely replicate the exerted strain.
“The sensor, akin to a miniature ‘capability meter’, can detect minute strain adjustments — mirroring the sensitivity of a lotus leaf to the extraordinarily gentle contact of a water droplet,” Benjamin Tee, lead researcher and an affiliate professor from the NUS Faculty of Design and Engineering and NUS Institute for Well being Innovation & Expertise, mentioned.
eAir units may be made a couple of millimeters in measurement, which is corresponding to the dimensions of present strain sensors. This expertise might probably be used to carry out laparoscopic surgical procedures by enabling tactile suggestions for surgeons, which leads to extra exact manipulation of affected person tissues.
“When surgeons carry out minimally-invasive surgical procedure resembling laparoscopic or robotic surgical procedure, we will management the jaws of the graspers, however we’re unable to really feel what the end-effectors are greedy. Therefore, surgeons must depend on our sense of sight and years of expertise to make a judgment name about essential data that our sense of contact might in any other case present,” Dr. Kaan Hung Leng, a marketing consultant for the Division of Normal Surgical procedure on the Nationwide College Hospital, Ng Teng Fong Normal Hospital and NUS Yong Lavatory Lin Faculty of Medication, mentioned.
This gadget may be used to enhance affected person experiences relating to managing brain-related circumstances, starting from extreme complications to potential mind injury. For instance, it might supply a much less invasive technique of monitoring intracranial strain (ICP), an essential well being metric for individuals with neurological circumstances.
The crew’s findings had been lately printed within the journal Nature Supplies. The NUS crew is laying the groundwork for collaborations with key gamers within the medical area and has additionally filed a patent for the eAir sensor expertise in Singapore.
