Bio-inspired, intelligent flexible sensing skin for multifunctional flying perception

Abstract Developing multifunctional flying perceptibility, by mimicking the biological system, is meaningful for aircrafts to adapt to the complicated and ambiguous flow environment. In this work, we show that the comprehensive capabilities (skin, synapse, immune system, and brain) of flying creatures can serve as bio-inspirations to develop an intelligent flexible sensing (iFlexSense) skin with similar components, i.e., skin-like mechanosensing, neuron-like data transmission, immune system-like impact monitoring and brain-like artificial intelligence. The iFlexSence skin brings substantial improvements to the aircrafts by the multifunctionalities including airflow perception, state awareness and self-diagnosis of complex surfaces, validated by the wind tunnel tests mounted on a NACA 0012 airfoil, in which it accurately measures the surface pressure, temperature, wall shear stress and flutter, locates the sudden impacts and correctly predicts the occurrence of separation and stall. It shows great potential for future wind tunnel tests and to extend the capabilities of unmanned air vehicles and underwater vehicles.