Scientists put moths in the driver's seat to learn about tracking odors autonomously.
By Elbert Chu Posted 02.07.2013 at 1:36 pm 1 Comment

Moth Exoskeleton
Moth Exoskeleton Have exo will ride. The University of Tokyo

If Mothra saw this contraption there'd be some Japanese scientists on the lam. But since she's distracted, scientists strapped hapless male silkmoths into an drivable exoskeleton and lured the specter of nightmares through a maze with female moth love juice as the prize.

We know moths fly and navigate well, but it turns out they're fleet of foot too. The moth exoskeleton is a glorified trackball, that is controlled by the legs of the moth running on a styrofoam ball. But it's a ride equipped with air conditioning -- dual fans blow towards the silkmoth antennae. Just to torture the moth some more, researchers partially jacked up the steering to make it a little harder. And then even with an additional wind thrown in the mix, the moths quickly navigated to the pheromone. Here's the silkmoth in action:

This isn't the first time scientists have employed animal senses for fun (ahem) I mean science. Recall the mouse that played Quake.

Besides having a ton of fun at the expense of the fuzzy fliers, the University of Tokyo researchers designed the experiment to learn more about how to design robots that could sense odors besides the very important moth pheromones. This could be useful in applications like locating hazardous leaks or noxious fumes not detectable by human noses. Maybe moths aren't so bad after all.

1 Comment

Link to this comment
tmarti69
02/07/13 at 2:56 pm

Can the moth be taught to associate another smell with the female pheromone, if so then they can be useful in detection and hunting devises. With a six mile range they could theoretically pick a hidden location of a devise or individual.
-
Reposted from 10/30/2010

The military did help crack the bee fungus problem. Perhaps collaboration will help this problem too. One possibility is the Bat moth bomb project, not to be confused with the mothballed bat bomb project. A moth can find a pheromone scent within a 6 mile range. So, we associate another scent that is always shortly followed by the moth pheromone. Train the moth to hunt that scent of a specific individual. A tinny piezoelectric speaker worn by the moths broadcasts a unique alarm sound to the bats that are trained to eat these noisy moths. Specially miniaturized GPS radio equipment fitted to the bats communicate their location to the military for observation of the location found by the moths. The value of the data is determined by the directness of the search performed by the moths triangulated and transmitted by the bats. When a reasonably good lead is found the location is remotely observed and listened to. Once the target is located and identified they are quickly dispatched, eliminated. The bats are trapped and retrieve with the same sound signals used by the moths. Finding a military value for bats will help in solving the ecology problems they face



June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email

Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email

circ-top-header.gif
circ-cover.gif
bmxmag-ps