Flexible Out-of-Plane Wind Sensors with a Self-Powered Feature Inspired by Fine Hairs of the Spider

The quest for out-of-plane & self-powered wind sensors has motivated the field of outdoor sports, exploration, space perception and positioning. Fine hairs of spiders act as hundreds of individual wind sensor, allowing them to feel nearby wind change caused by the predators or prey. Inspired by this natural teacher, here we demonstrate the fabrication of bio-inspired self-powered out-of-plane wind sensors based on flexible magnetoelectric material systems. The shape of flexible sensors, by patterning silver nanoparticles (SNPs) on a thin polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film through a screen printing technique, mimics fine hairs of the spiders, allowing for out-of-plane tactile perceptual monitoring caused by the wind. Owing to the employment of flexible magnetoelectric materials, the sensors can distinguish forward/backward winds, and are totally self-powered. The working mechanism for sensors has been explained by Maxwell numerical simulation, allowing for further improvement of their performance by tun...