The design and the development of the Smellicopter as the drone is called, is inspired by the moth antenna. The nocturnal insect uses it antenna to sense chemical and various smell in it surrounding and to navigate toward food sources, light and the potential mate.
This Smellicopter uses the sensitivity of a biological organism (live moth antenna) on a robotic platform as the odour sensor for the drone.
A University of Washington Professor of Biology: Thomas Daniel who co-authored the research which led to Smellicopter development said "Cells in a moth antenna amplify chemical signals and the moth do it really efficiently — one scent molecule can trigger lots of cellular responses, and that’s the trick. This process is super efficient, specific and fast.”
Smellicopter is equipped with live antenna from a moth with which it navigate toward smells. A publication by the University of Washington says, "Researchers placed moths in the fridge to anesthetize them before removing an antenna. Once separated from the live moth, the antenna stays biologically and chemically active for up to four hours. That time span could be extended, the by storing antennae in the fridge."
"By adding tiny wires into either end of the antenna, the researchers were able to connect it to an electrical circuit and measure the average signal from all of the cells in the antenna. The team then compared it to a typical human-made sensor by placing both at one end of a wind tunnel and wafting smells that both sensors would respond to: a floral scent and ethanol, a type of alcohol. The antenna reacted more quickly and took less time to recover between puffs."
And so to create Smellicopter the team added the antenna sensor to an open-source hand-held commercially available quadcopter drone platform that allows users to add special features. The researchers also added two plastic fins on the back of the drone to create drag to help it be constantly oriented upwind.
The lead author of the project, Melanie Anderson have this to say, "the antenna is kind like a tube , so what we are able to do is to take really thin metal wires and stick those into the end of the antenna, so when the antenna get activated from odours then you are able to measure the electrical signal as a spike."
Live testing of the Smellicopter show that it fly toward smells that moths naturally find interesting and that is floral scent, but it was stated that in the future work, researchers could improve the moth antenna to sense other smells other than floral scent.
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