Single lens eyes, like those in humans and many other animals, can create sharp images, but the compound eyes of insects and crustaceans have an edge when it comes to peripheral vision, light sensitivity and motion detection.

That's why scientists are developing artificial compound eyes to give sight to autonomous vehicles and robots, among other applications. Now, a report in ACS Nano describes the preparation of bioinspired artificial compound eyes using a simple low-cost approach.

Compound eyes are made up of tiny independent repeating visual receptors, called ommatidia, each consisting of a lens, cornea and photoreceptor cells.

Some insects have thousands of units per eye; creatures with more ommatidia have increased visual resolution. Attempts to create artificial compound eyes in the lab are often limited by cost, tend to be large and sometimes include only a fraction of the ommatidia and nanostructures typical of natural compound eyes.

Some groups are using lasers and nanotechnology to generate artificial bug eyes in bulk, but the structures tend to lack uniformity and are often distorted, which compromises sight. To make artificial insect eyes with improved visual properties, Wenjun Wang and colleagues developed a new strategy with improved structural homogeneity.

As a first step, the researchers shot a laser through a double layer of acrylic glass, focusing on the lower layer. The laser caused the lower layer to swell, creating a convex dome shape.

The researchers created an array of these tiny lenses that could themselves be bent along a curved structure to create the artificial eye.

Then, through several steps, the researchers grew nanostructures on top of the convex glass domes that, up close, resemble a shag carpet. The nanostructures endowed the microlenses with desirable antireflective and water-repellent properties.

Research paper

Related Links
American Chemical Society
All about the robots on Earth and beyond!

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

How game theory can bring humans and robots closer together
Sussex UK (SPX) Jan 08, 2019
Researchers at the University of Sussex, Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have for the first time used game theory to enable robots to assist humans in a safe and versatile manner. The research team used adaptive control and Nash equilibrium game theory to programme a robot that can understand its human user's behaviour in order to better anticipate their movements and respond to them. The researchers believe the breakthrough could help robots complem ... read more