A fungal skin is a thin flexible sheet of a living homogeneous mycelium made by a filamentous fungus. The skin could be used in future living architectures of adaptive buildings and as a sensing living skin for soft self-growing/adaptive robots. In experimental laboratory studies we demonstrate that the fungal skin is capable for recognising mechanical and optical stimulation. The skin reacts differently to loading of a weight, removal of the weight, and switching illumination on and off. These are the first experimental evidences that fungal materials can be used not only as mechanical `skeletons' in architecture and robotics but also as intelligent skins capable for recognition of external stimuli and sensorial fusion.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2008.09814,
title = {Fungal sensing skin},
author = {Andrew Adamatzky and Antoni Gandia and Alessandro Chiolerio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.09814},
year = {2020}
}