Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a bio-mechanical smell-robot based on a locust’s antennae. By connecting the antennae to “simple electro-antennogram technology” armed with odour-analysing software, the robot can detect scents at the level of the insect’s primary sensory organ. The team from Tel Aviv University trained the robot to recognise eight odours, including geranium, lemon and marzipan. They plan to give it navigational ability so it can travel to the source of the odour, and hope the invention will eventually have uses in detecting explosives and cancer.
The biological and technological breakthrough was led by doctoral student Neta Shvil of Tel Aviv University’s Sagol School of Neuroscience, Dr. Ben Maoz of the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, and Prof. Yossi Yovel and Prof. Amir Ayali of the School of Zoology and the Sagol School of Neuroscience. The results of the study were published in the prestigious journal Biosensor and Bioelectronics.
At the video below you can hear Dr Ben Maoz and Neta Shvil give a thorough explanation of this “smelling” robot.