Actively Generated Flow Field Helps a Crayfish Robot Collect Chemical Signals

Abstract

This paper reports on an underwater wheeled robot designed to locate chemical sources by mimicking the behavior of a crayfish in still water. Crayfish in search of food generate water currents by waving their fan organs, i.e., the maxillipeds, to collect the food odors from the surroundings to the chemoreceptor organs. Similarly, the robot waves the arms mimicking the maxillipeds, and generates a flow field to collect chemicals to the four sensors. The generated flow field brings chemicals released from different areas to the different sensors. Therefore, the direction of the chemical source can be determined by simply comparing the sensor responses. Although the maximum range for drawing the chemical is approximately 5 cm, the chemical sensing ability of the robot is significantly improved. Experimental results show that the robot can localize a chemical source by employing the actively generated flow field.

Review of Odor Source Localization Robot Based on Bionic Olfaction

“…In 2004, Ishida developed a robot carrying 6 gas sensors and 2 wind direction sensors that could localize odor source in 3D space [14]. From 2005, Ishida has begun to join visual information into robot navigation experiments [15][16][17]. In 2006, Ishida developed a robot that was equipped with a CMOS camera, gas sensors and airflow sensors [15].…”

“…The robot can combine olfactory and vision information to determine whether the gas exists. In 2008 and 2009, Ishida respectively designed an active stereo nose mimic dog [16] and a crayfish robot collecting chemical signals [17].…”