Performance Evaluation of Insect Electroantennography-Based Bilateral Sensors for Mobile Odorant Sensing
Student Contest:
No
Affiliation Type:
Academia
Keywords:
Odor Biosensor, Insect, Electroantennogram, Pheromone, Mobile Sensing
Abstract:
Insects have excellent olfactory abilities, which are mainly attributed to the two antennae located on their heads. The bioelectric signals occurring in the antennae can be measured electrophysiologically using electroantennogram (EAG) techniques, and this method can be utilized for odor sensing by employing the antennae as biosensor elements. In this study, we developed a small sensor module based on EAG measurements of silkmoth antennae and constructed a mobile sensor device with the modules arranged bilaterally, similar to the arrangement of insects. We confirmed that the constructed sensor can stably measure the sex pheromone component, bombykol, and demonstrated its capability of detecting local pheromone distribution by measuring the surrounding air while sampling with the sensor device. In the next phase, integrating the developed EAG sensor devices with robotics is anticipated to contribute to the implementation of challenging robotic olfaction.
