Integrating natural and synthetic systems for airborne bio-hybrid chemical sensing devices

Abstract

Chemical sensing is a universal capability of living organisms across all scales and taxa. Most animals depend on this ability for their survival and flying animals have evolved sophisticated sensing capabilities and olfactory search behaviors that allow them to efficiently search in highly complex 3D environments such as the forest canopy, which include myriad obstacles and turbulent flow. The ability to sense complex organic molecules with extremely small concentrations (parts per trillion) is far beyond the capabilities of even state of the art portable synthetic sensors.In this work, we have developed a portable biohybrid chemical sensor which uses an antenna from the Manduca sexta moth to detect various chemicals. Additionally we have shown that this biohybrid chemical sensor can also be used on a human-safe palm-sized air vehicle. Using this sensor along with a suite of additional navigational sensors, as well as passive wind fins, this robot orients upwind and navigates autonomously toward the source of airborne plumes. This robot is the first flying biohybrid system to successfully perform odor localization in a confined space, and it is able to do so while detecting and avoiding obstacles in its flight path. We show that insect antennae respond more quickly than metal oxide gas sensors, enabling odor localization at an improved speed over previous flying robots.