Overview
- Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, with partners in Berlin and Stuttgart, report that about 1,000 trunk whiskers transition from rigid bases to rubber-like tips.
- Domestic cat whiskers display a similar gradient, whereas rat and mouse whiskers remain uniformly stiff along their length.
- Micro-CT imaging reveals thick, blade-like hairs with a hollow base and internal channels that cut weight and boost impact resistance for non-regenerating whiskers.
- Nanoindentation, a scaled 3D‑printed prototype, and computational simulations together show the gradient encodes where contact occurs along each whisker.
- The team is pursuing bio‑inspired tactile sensors that use such material gradients to deliver precise touch information with minimal computation.