Tel Aviv University researchers say their bot can identify several smells with a level of sensitivity 10,000 times higher than common electronic devices
(Picture: Tel Aviv University)Humans aren’t the only species at risk of losing their jobs to machines — dogs could be next.
Israeli scientists claim to have created a robot with a “biological nose” for smelling odours. This could see droids replace sniffer and disease-detection dogs in the future.
Tel Aviv University researchers say their bot can identify several smells with a level of sensitivity 10,000 times higher than common electronic devices.
They equipped the robot with bio-sensing antennae, inspired by a desert locust, that allowed it to detect odours, and then measured their electrical activity. Meanwhile, they used machine learning to compile a library of smells. They identified eight odours, including geranium, lemon and marzipan, and have since detected different types of Scotch whisky.
The breakthrough is part of a growing field of scientific research that has seen academics, entrepreneurs and big tech striving to bestow a sense of smell to computers and electronics. Recent innovations include “smell cyborgs” that can get a whiff of explosives thanks to bioengineered nerve cells in their sensors.
A whisky-detecting system has also already been developed that can spot differences between six whiskies by their brand names, regions, and styles in less than four minutes. Researchers at Google are also training artificial intelligence systems to develop a sense of smell to combat insect-borne diseases.
The team believe their invention could one day be used to sniff out explosives, drugs and diseases — tasks otherwise carried out by law enforcement and medical support hounds. Using the current limitations of airport security as an example, they claim that sniffer dogs are still tasked with rooting out contraband. This is despite the prevalence of man-made tech such as metal detectors and baggage scanners.
That’s because animals are better at sniffing out odours than humans. Our sensory organs, such as the eye, ear and nose, use receptors that identify and distinguish between different signals. Then, the sensory organ translates these findings into electrical signals, which the brain decodes as information.
Animals, and insects in particular, excel at translating these signals. A mosquito, for example, can detect a 0.01 per cent difference in the level of carbon dioxide in the air.
“Some animals have amazing abilities to detect explosives or drugs; the creation of a robot with a biological nose could help us preserve human life and identify criminals in a way that is not possible today”, said Dr Ben Maoz of Tel Aviv University.
“Some animals know how to detect diseases. Others can sense earthquakes. The sky is the limit.”
