Volume 11 Issue 6
Effect of Olfactory Stimulus on the Flight Course of a Honeybee, Apis mellifera, in a Wind Tunnel
Hidetoshi Ikeno,Tadaaki Akamatsu,Yuji Hasegawa andHiroyuki Ai
1The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera (PI) 56025, Italy
2ST Microelectronics, Stradale Primosole 50, Catania (CT) 95121, Italy
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
We present a novel sensorized mat for monitoring infant’s posture through the measure of pressure maps. The pressure-sensitive mat is based on an optoelectronic technology developed in the last few years at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna: a soft silicone skin cover, which constitutes the mat, participates in the transduction principle and provides the mat with compliance. The device has a modular structure (with a minimum of one and a maximum of six sub-modules, and a total surface area of about 1 m2) that enables dimensional adaptation of the pressure-sensitive area to different specific applications. The system consists of on-board electronics for data collection, pre-elaboration, and transmission to a remote computing unit for analysis and posture classification. In this work we present a complete description of the sensing apparatus along with its experimental characterization and validation with five healthy infants.Keywords: pressure-sensitive mat; pressure-sensitive technology; optoelectronics; pressure maps; infant posture