Slimy hairs: Hair sensors made with slime mould

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel tactile sensor using slime mould Physarum polycephalum that detects deflections with high signal-to-noise ratio, mimicking hair sensors.

Contribution

It introduces a biologically inspired tactile sensor based on slime mould, demonstrating its responsiveness and signal quality for potential bio-hybrid sensing applications.

Findings

High signal-to-noise ratio in immediate response (near six)

Prolonged response shows a signal-to-noise ratio of about two

Responsive to repeated deflections with distinct spike patterns

Abstract

Slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a large single cell visible by unaided eye. We design a slime mould implementation of a tactile hair, where the slime mould responds to repeated deflection of hair by an immediate high-amplitude spike and a prolonged increase in amplitude and width of its oscillation impulses. We demonstrate that signal-to-noise ratio of the Physarum tactile hair sensor averages near six for the immediate response and two for the prolonged response.