Issue 03 | October 2024
Forging New Frontiers
Materials Science and Engineering
Learning from the platypus’s ‘sixth sense’
By integrating triboelectric and visuotactile sensing, a novel bionic electro-mechanosensory finger achieves both remote control and tactile perception, mimicking the platypus’s ability to sense electronic signals in murky waters and respond to physical stimuli.
I
f Mother Nature had a wonderfully weird child, it would very well be the platypus. This duck-billed, otter-footed, beaver-tailed, egg-laying mammal has an assemblage of traits like no other. And if its appearance alone somehow fails to impress, the Australian native has another trick up its furry sleeve: a so-called ‘sixth sense’, based on electro- and mechano-reception. Image above was created with the assistance of DALL·E 2